The Fifth Race's Reclaimers
by Piero217
Summary: Three galaxies, thousands of worlds, four great races watching over them all... and only one species destined to inherit their place. Will the human race be able to attain the Mantle of Responsibility, or will our enemies prevail in destroying us? A massive crossover set shortly after the events of Halo: Infinity (Spartan Ops). CHAPTER 10 UPDATED!
1. Discoveries

**A/N: This is my very first time writing a fic. Also, English is ****_not_**** my native language, so I'll appreciate and gladly accept any comments and/or corrections. In fact, feel free to point out even the tiniest little detail you might find, so I can help improve my English and in turn my stories.**

**If you haven't read the Forerunner Saga or the first two books in the Kilo-Five Trilogy, you might have a hard time understanding some of the things happening in this story, so I strongly reccommend reading them first.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Stargate. I'm just a huge fan of both franchises just like you. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, Earth**

**0700 hrs. July 14, 2013**

The sun started to rise over the ocean, its rays shining off the waves and generating a beautiful display of multicolored light. It was the beginning of a new day over planet Earth, and it certainly seemed to be full of hope and new opportunities.

As the yellow star began to rise higher above the sky, the reflection of its light started to shine off something else, something standing mightily tall over the waves. Any seaman sailing through those waters would have believed it to be a wonderful mirage.

But John Sheppard knew better. He was standing on the "mirage", after all. He had spent 5 years living in an alien city in a foreign galaxy, but now Atlantis was back to the planet where it had first been built, and he loved the sight of the familiar star rising over the city.

The Ancient city-ship was uncloaked; it needed not be hidden, not this far into the Pacific Ocean. This was no-man's land, which meant virtually no passing ships near the floating city. It had been moved to this location, further away from the mainland, roughly three months after its arrival on Earth, in order to keep it safe from any prying eyes attentive enough to distinguish the slight shimmer of the cloaked city in the horizon of San Francisco.

It had already been 4 years since that…

And many things had changed in that time.

Currently, there was no more real combat in the Milky Way galaxy; the Goa'uld and the Ori had both been defeated, and the Lucian Alliance, though formidable, had become into nothing more than a mere nuisance after their defeat onboard the _Destiny_. Only a few skirmishes had taken place ever since, and they all had been in space, where—thanks in no small part to the Asgard technology received years before—Earth's humans now held considerable superiority.

As for the Wraith, well… it sufficed to say they were no longer a real threat for the galaxy. Most of them had met their end in a way so frightening it made even John feel a tingling on his back. Those few that remained were not enough anymore to reclaim Pegasus, posing only a small menace to the galaxy now.

And so, even though the Ancient city had just enough power to go back to Pegasus and finish the job, the IOA had decided it would be wiser to let it remain on Earth where (according to them) it would be more valuable, establishing a whole new base back on the neighboring galaxy instead.

The planet chosen for the new Pegasus Forward Base would be in the very edge of the galaxy, have no Stargate of its own—one would be brought in from the old Intergalactic Bridge—and it would be completely abandoned and ignored by the remaining Wraith. With both the _Daedalus_ and the _Apollo_ also providing continuous support, the place was simply the perfect beachhead.

Sheppard and his team had been among the military personnel who would travel back to establish the new base, along with a special team of scientists, but when it was confirmed the Wraith were virtually gone, the IOA decided it was no longer necessary to keep such a large force in Pegasus, and most of the original contingent had remained on Earth, including John.

Now, without any mission to carry out, he had more than enough time to spare to just watch the Earth sunrise from one of the balconies of the Ancient city until the reds and oranges shining off the ocean faded entirely. Even though he was allowed to go back to the States on a regular basis, he had been told—no, he had been _ordered_ to remain on Atlantis for reasons only the IOA knew.

Sheppard really missed the combat, fighting in the front lines, or at the very least, the off-world travels. He envied Teyla and Ronon. Unlike him, they both had been granted permission to go back to their home galaxy. Sheppard started to wonder, what were they doing right now?

At least, he thought, humans had finally achieved some sort of peace on a galactic scale—in two galaxies, actually—and he should be thankful for that. But would it last for long, or would it be a short-lived peace? Would he be in the right place if a new enemy surfaced… or an old one?

The sun was now riding higher above the city, shining bright and glorious. Sheppard left the balcony and headed back into the city.

* * *

**Somewhere in Slipspace, en route to ONI Research Facility Trevelyan**

**1400 hrs. September 17, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

Blackness. Nothing but blackness outside.

No one noticed from inside of the gigantic ship though, as it travelled smoothly through Slipspace. Lots of activity everywhere, especially at the bridge. They would soon drop from this extra-dimensional region of space and reach their intended destination.

The UNSC _Infinity_ had been called from Earth to ONI Research Facility Trevelyan as a top-priority situation, but as usual, no details were given. As far as everyone aboard the ship knew, they could be dealing with an incursion from the Covenant on the facility or with some stupid request from any of the science teams stationed there. It wouldn't be the first time, but it was always boring for everyone.

Still, Captain Thomas Lasky preferred this to any kind of bloodshed, unless it was on the Covenant's part. And even then, there were always human casualties. No matter how hard someone could try, there would always be a price to pay in war. Especially since the Covenant had a human ally amongst them, and quite a dangerous one given all the secrets she knew.

Just a few months ago, a Covenant assault force had raided a colony world dedicated to studying some ancient archaeological remains not Covenant or Forerunner in origin. It had been a massacre. All research equipment, both top-notch and basic stuff, had been taken; nothing less.

It was obvious Dr. Catherine Halsey had been behind the attack. Why would the Covenant take only science stuff otherwise? Dr. Henry Glassman had finally come to the conclusion that Halsey had kept the second half of the mysterious Forerunner artifact recovered from Requiem just before its destruction, and whether she knew the true purpose of the device or not, now she had to be looking for a way to activate it without its counterpart.

Lasky couldn't help but wonder how much damage Halsey would cause if she managed to activate the artifact. She most certainly was no longer fond of the UNSC, not after being betrayed. In a way, he could understand her, no matter what she'd done in the past. Such understanding had been what had made him sent Spartan Fireteam Majestic to rescue her before Commander Sarah Palmer could execute her.

Now, that decision weighed heavily on him.

Palmer had given him a told-you-so look when they had returned to Earth after Requiem's destruction and had had to face Admiral Serin Osman about their failed mission to eliminate Halsey. But even then, Sarah had supported him in saying the Covenant had left with Halsey before they could even have a chance to complete the given order.

Without any hard evidence proving otherwise, Osman had left the Captain clear of all charges an allowed him to keep his position as CO of the _Infinity_… but not before telling him something that now haunted him: "Anything she causes from now on will be over your head."

And it was. He didn't regret his decision, and he knew if he had to choose, he'd do all over again. But the outcome still was too much for him now.

Lasky tried to push all these thoughts aside as the _Infinity_ came out of Slipspace and starlight filled the bridge anew. They had emerged right next to the Forerunner shield world once known as Onyx by the humans, and after following the usual safety procedures to access the construct, the ship finally entered "orbit" inside, several kilometers above the inner surface of this world.

All of a sudden, Thomas knew for sure they would all learn the importance of their presence here. And somehow, he also knew they would be facing something more threatening than everything they were facing now. Soon.

He left the bridge and headed for the Pelican bay.

* * *

**Atlantis, Pacific Ocean, Earth**

**1000 hrs. July 14, 2013**

After a short visit to the Gate room, Sheppard headed for the main laboratory. Dr. Rodney McKay would be there as usual, hard working in his ZPM research. McKay had become somewhat obsessed with discovering the secret behind one of the most powerful sources of energy ever created, claiming that "the world sorely needed it".

John suspected Rodney had ulterior motives, though. He had come to know McKay well enough to believe he was after a Nobel Prize and the worldwide recognition it would bring—always the egocentric man. Of course, Sheppard couldn't help but make jokes about it all the time, which always annoyed McKay.

But today, even before John reached the lab, Rodney was already annoyed. Maybe something had gone sideways with his work, Sheppard thought at first when he saw him.

"Hey, Rodney. How's that Nobel going?" Sheppard asked as he approached McKay.

"Not today, Sheppard", McKay answered not even turning to look at him. "I'm not in a mood for it. Something really weird has happened with the Ancients database."

"Weird. How so?"

"It's none of your business."

"OK", John said and started to walk towards the exit.

"Oh, come on! Don't act as if you're not interested", came the reply from McKay. John smiled; that strategy always worked on Rodney. He just couldn't help but to point out any kind of problem so he could later brag about solving it almost miraculously.

"It's not that I'm not interested. It's just… none of my business."

"Alright, if you need to know, someone accessed the database's encrypted section. Happy now?"

Sheppard turned back. "What do you mean with 'encrypted'?"

"I mean 'encrypted'!" McKay said, clearly mad about it. "As in 'an isolated section of the database protected by the Ancients with an encoded algorithm in order to prevent anyone to access its contents for unknown reasons'."

"What are you talking about?" Sheppard said. "The Ancient database's contents have always been _fully_ accessible since we first stepped through the Gate."

"That's what we used to think, until I found out an entire section on the database closed off to the public a couple of years ago. I've been trying to discover what it contains, but since the most important stuff _is_ accessible—ZPM research, Gate addresses, lots of Ancient tech, you name it—, I didn't really pay too much attention to it. Besides, I didn't think someone would be able to crack the encryption."

McKay chose this moment to finally turn and see Sheppard, and John was unable to hide the guilt in his face.

"Oh no, you're kidding me", McKay said, shooting him a double-take.

"Rodney—"

"You?! Of all the people in this city, it was you?"

"I was bored!" Sheppard said. "I've been sitting in my ass for over four years! The IOA wouldn't even let me join an SG team because 'they needed me here'. Do you know what it is like for a guy like me to just stand there and do nothing after five years of extensive action?"

"Fine, I'll give you that", McKay said, softening his expression a little, "but why would you do it in the first place?"

"It… was a favor", Sheppard answered.

"A favor? Who would ever ask _you_ to do such a thing?"

"That would be me", said a voice coming from down the hallway. It was followed by the footsteps of Dr. Daniel Jackson as he walked into the lab. McKay seemed visibly taken aback by this, as he used to think there was some sort of rivalry between the two of them. Then again, McKay just seemed to have some sort of rivalry with everyone.

Dr. Jackson continually visited Atlantis as part of his own research on the Ancients' history, especially in the last two years. Sheppard knew he had been trying to do so ever since the city had been discovered, but only had been able to since it had come back to Earth. Surely he'd found out something very big lately; otherwise, he wouldn't have approached him so desperately to ask for his help in decoding the hidden section of the database.

Before McKay could ask or say anything else, Daniel spoke. "I didn't ask _you_ to do it, Rodney, because I knew you'd just be too 'busy' to help, and this is important."

"Oh really? How important?" McKay seemed somewhat offended.

"Well, ever since we learned about the Alliance of Four Great Races, I've found several references about 'a legacy of responsibility for humans in every galaxy'. I used to believe it meant humans here and in Pegasus, or maybe even humans taken by the Ancients to other places far beyond the Milky Way. But what if it means something else? I mean, the Ancients were the first evolved humans that we know of, and even they had evolved in another galaxy altogether. So, what if humans have not only evolved here in this galaxy, but in others as well?

"Now, two years ago I discovered an interesting record in the _Odyssey_'s Asgard core. It is the oldest record mentioning the Furlings—the only race in the Alliance still shrouded in mystery—and according to its contents, they were also from another galaxy where humans had evolved, but that's it."

McKay and Sheppard looked at each other with confusion. "There are no more details?" McKay asked. "Nothing at all?"

"Just one thing", Daniel replied. "The record implies the Ancients had once been at the Furlings' home galaxy after they left the Milky Way, just before they arrived at Pegasus."

"And something that important should be in the Ancients database!" McKay exclaimed, apparently understanding where Daniel was going.

"Except it's not there," Daniel said. "I've already been all over it, and there's nothing whatsoever. Unless…"

"Unless it _is_ there", Sheppard continued, catching the drift, "and it is hidden."

"Exactly. That´s why I asked you to help me decrypt it."

"Well, you could have asked me", McKay said. He no longer seemed pissed, but rather quite interested. "Have you found anything related yet?"

"So far, only one word", Daniel said. "'Precursors'".

* * *

**Trevelyan Airbase, 500 miles from ONI SHIELD Base**

**ONI RF Trevelyan**

**1430 hrs. September 17, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

The Pelican's passenger-bay doors opened, and Captain Lasky descended from it. A pair of Huragok approached the vehicle to service it. This only happened here in Trevelyan, but still Lasky felt uneasy about it. He feared one day humans would become so dependent in these Forerunner-made aliens, it would become their weakness. It had happened before with the Covenant.

He walked towards the Warthog parked a few dozen meters from the landing pad; a corporal was already waiting at the driver's seat. As he climbed aboard, he couldn't help but smile. Every single time he was on a 'Hog, it reminded him of the occasion when he was the Master Chief's driver—when they were escaping from Corbulo. That made him lose his smile as he remembered all the people he'd lost that day: Dimah, JJ, Walter… Chyler…

But that had been a long time ago. Now he had to focus on the mission at hand.

The ride to ONI SHIELD Base—if it could be called like that—didn't take long. The base had been established in one of the Forerunner cities built within this shield world. It had taken ONI a long time to take that step but after just a couple of years, they'd finally occupied the place. A small section of it, anyway. And Lasky had to admit it looked amazing.

The driver had to take a few more turns after he'd entered through the main gates before they arrived at one of the ONI-occupied buildings. As Lasky climbed out of the vehicle and started walking towards the entrance, he was greeted by someone he had not expected to see ever again.

"Hello, _Captain_ Lasky. Welcome to SHIELD Base."

Lasky felt compelled to embrace the Major, but he wasn't absolutely sure if that would seem appropriate, as other people were close by. His body language might have given him away though, because it was the other man who actually took the initiative to beckon him closer.

"It's alright, Tom", he said, thrusting his arms around him and squeezing him tightly. "It's been a long time after all."

For a moment, Lasky felt lost for words, but the glee he felt made him regain his speech. "Yes it has, Sully. It surely has."

The last time he'd seen Michael "Sully" Sullivan was shortly after their rescue from Circinius-IV. They had been forced to go separate ways, since there were not enough military academies with enough space for cadets who'd just lost their school to the Covenant. He'd heard rumors about Sully being accepted into ONI and trained by them, but after a while he'd gone off the grid.

Sully had already messed with ONI's comms back at Corbulo, shortly before the Covenant attack, which could've gotten him into a lot of trouble. He'd hoped his disappearance only meant he was just so damn good he'd become some sort of operative or something like that.

And now here he was: a Major, and apparently in charge of the complex, or at least of something very important in it. It didn't matter; he was just so glad to see his good old friend again.

Sully finally let go of Lasky. "I'm sorry we'll have to skip the pleasantries and getting up-to-date on each other, but we're kind of on a time table here. Please, come this way." Sully stated to walk back inside the building, and Lasky followed.

"Can you at least tell me how did you wind up in this place?"

"Guess being one of the chief intelligence analyst helps", Sully replied, "but that's all I'm allowed to say for the moment."

Lasky was taken aback by this answer. Sully had always complained about ONI keeping secrets. Now he seemed to cope with it; he was now _part of_ ONI, after all.

They walked for a while until they finally reached what seemed to be a conference room. There was no one else there but them, however. The doors closed behind them, and Sully motioned Lasky to one of the chairs.

"So, can you tell me what I'm doing here?" Lasky asked as he sat down.

"Well, first of all, you're here to receive a history lesson", Sully said. "Just like the old times back in Corbulo."

Lasky frowned. "And you're going to be my teacher today?"

Sully smiled. "It's very short, and I promise I'll make it easy for you. After all, you were never good in History.

"As you may already know, in the last few years we've learned lots of things about Forerunner tech here, but there's not really much about them as a _race_—their history, their society, their culture. Only in recent years we have been able to put together some bits and pieces we've found on several known Forerunner locations; thus, now we have learned–though vaguely, I'll admit– about both their history and that of another race which preceded them, some folks called 'Precursors'.

"From what we've been able to piece together, these Precursors were a highly advanced race, way more advanced than the Forerunners themselves. The Precursors achieved a level of science which allowed them to build their technology based on something called "neural physics". While this normally made most Precursor artifacts effectively indestructible, the nature of their construction made them extremely susceptible to the effects of the Halo Array which, to the best of our knowledge, specifically targets neural systems."

After a short pause, Lasky asked, "Is that it? That was the history lesson?"

"We're just getting started", Sully answered. "I'm just giving you enough time to let it sink in, because what I'm about to tell you is way bigger than anything you've ever known.

"Apparently, years before the major Halo event, the Forerunners test-fired a Halo on a planet known to them as Charum Hakkor where there was a lot of Precursors structures. The weapon's effect shattered every structure, and they were all wiped out… all but one. Not much is mentioned about this single device, except for the fact that such a device seemed to be present in several worlds.

"After a long research, the Forerunner concluded the device was of an unknown origin—and by 'unknown' they meant 'not built by any species in this galaxy, extinct or otherwise'—, suggesting there was another race out there which came to our galaxy just to spread this mysterious artifacts all over it. The Forerunners ended up collecting a large number of such devices and storing them in the Ark for further study.

"From their own reports, we gather the Forerunners used to believe it was through these artifacts that the Precursors seeded life in the galaxy. The Halos had been built in a shape identical to those devices to reflect the irony of their function in contrast. But when they found out the artifacts were _not_ Precursor-made at all…"

This time the pause lasted longer, which made Lasky think the main revelation was still coming. When it didn't come, he decided to break the silence. "Something tells me this goes beyond classified, or a lot of UNSC personnel outside of ONI would already know this, including me. Which leads to an obvious question: Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because", Sully replied, "your mission is to recover these artifacts in order for _us_ to study them and understand their true purpose, and maybe even find out where did they come from."

Lasky felt at a loss. Had he missed something during the "History lesson"?

"Sully, you're right about me not being really good in History, but I do remember reading something about the Ark being destroyed when the replacement Halo was activated to wipe out the Flood threat."

"'Thought to be destroyed'", Sully said matter-of-factly. "When we debriefed MCPO Spartan-117, we learned that the Ark had been damaged but _not_ destroyed, according to Cortana's account."

"And I assume you've already found its location."

"Took us a while, but we have found it indeed."

"But you don't know what to expect, do you?"

"You catch up quickly, Tom. That's where _Infinity_ and the Spartan-IV's come in", Sully said. "You are our very best bet there."

Lasky couldn't deny that. And he did understand the implications of the mission. If these devices were actually something way beyond the Forerunners themselves, they could even be the key holding secrets more powerful than anything this galaxy had ever seen.

They could give mankind the ultimate upper hand.

"What would we be looking for?" Lasky finally said, letting out a sigh.

Sully raised a remote, and a holographic display flashed above the desk. "They are similar in appearance to the Halos, but we believe them to be _way_ smaller. Approximately seven meters in diameter."

The hologram displayed a ring-shaped device covered in weird-looking symbols. Definitely, it was not a Halo.

* * *

**So, what do you think? Please, review and comment. Have a nice day!  
**


	2. Travel Preparations

**A/N: Thank you all for your comments! I hope this chapter keeps up with your expectations, short as it is. Honestly, I intended to do it longer, but when I finished writing it just seemed ready to be released. So, here it is. Enjoy!**

**Thank you as well for your ideas! I'm already working on some of them.**

**By the way, I do want to keep updating ASAP, but since I'm still in college and with a job... Just bear with me, please. I promise you won't regret it.**

* * *

**Atlantis conference room**

**Atlantis, Earth**

**1800 hrs. July 15, 2013**

"What exactly are the implications on this?" Richard Woolsey asked.

A meeting had been called upon soon after McKay and Daniel had debriefed Wolsey and General Jack O'Neill on their discovery. All four of them were here now. Being here brought Sheppard back to the "old" days, when he and his team would work out their next mission.

"Well, there is a chance we could find the only race that remains of the Alliance, besides the Nox," Daniel said.

"Yeah… Daniel, need I remind you that the last time you said something like that, we almost got our asses whooped by the Ori?" O'Neill said.

"It could be different this time, Jack."

"Really? What have you learned so far, anyway?"

Daniel and McKay looked at each other. "Well," McKay said, "th-the decryption process is taking longer than we first anticipated. Apparently the Ancients wanted to make sure this remained a well-kept secret, which is odd considering they even left the information in the database. I-I mean, you'd think they would have erased it in the first place if they—"

"Rodney," Sheppard interrupted, "have you found something new or not?"

McKay paused, then said, "No, not really."

"The decrypted information is emerging randomly," Daniel said, "so we only have bits and pieces. Although I think some of it hints to an individual alliance between the Ancients and the Precursors prior to the one forged with the Asgard and the Nox, I won't be able to confirm anything until I have more to work with."

"Alright then, Dr. Jackson," Woolsey finally spoke again. "Keep working on it. In the meantime, let's move on to more pressing matters, shall we?"

"Colonel Sheppard, I think this particularly may interest you," O'Neill said.

Sheppard frowned. "How so, sir?"

"It involves you and a little space trip… to Pegasus." Sheppard's eyes immediately brightened.

"Just a few days ago," Woolsey said, "our people back in Pegasus found an Ancient manufacturing facility. Apparently, its purpose was dedicated to building _Aurora_-class battleships."

"I start to like the sound of that," Sheppard said.

"Unfortunately, there was only one ship remaining there, and because of the collateral damage caused to the Travelers by the activation of the Attero device a few years ago, we thought it would actually be of more benefit if we turned it over to them."

Sheppard was confused. "That wasn't our fault… entirely. And how could that be of more benefit to us, anyway?"

Woolsey grinned. "Well, we gave them the ship, and they allowed us to keep all but one of the ZPMs stored in the facility."

Even McKay reacted to that last sentence. "Did you just say 'Zed-PM'?"

"Actually, Rodney," Sheppard said, "I think he said ZPMs. Plural."

Now Rodney's eyes were wide open. "How many of them?"

"Eight," Woolsey answered. "Minus the one we're giving them for their ship."

"Seven total," Sheppard said matter-of-factly. "Three for Atlantis, and the remaining ones for the _Daedalus_, the _Apollo_, the _Hammond_—"

"And Stargate Command," O'Neill concluded. "You never know when we could use one."

"But where does the space trip fit in all this?" Sheppard asked.

"The _Daedalus_ has been appointed to retrieve the ZPMs," Woolsey said. "We could send someone through the Gate, but without the necessary control crystal, they won't be able to dial back. I know you've been away from the action for quite some time, and I thought you might want to, at least, get out of the city. For _real_, if you know what I mean. What better opportunity than this one?"

Sheppard couldn't believe it. Not the part of Woolsey letting him go, but Earth's increasing luck—their enemies defeated, humans acquiring more technology now than ever, the possibility of a new ally. How much luckier could they get? And for how long?

_What the hell_, he thought, _let's enjoy it while it lasts._

"So," he asked, "when do we leave?"

* * *

**In orbit above Earth, Sol System**

**UNSC _Infinity_, S-Deck**

**1200 hrs. September 23, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

"They're overdue," Captain Lasky said. There was a slight trace of concern in his voice.

He was standing at Palmer's command post overseeing S-Deck, waiting for the new Spartan-IV fireteams assigned to _Infinity_. Sully had advised him to take as many Spartans as possible for the mission but wouldn't say anything else. Lasky was surprised of his own patience regarding ONI and their psychological need to keep all the secrets they could.

"The best things in life always take time, Captain." Roland, the ship's AI, was his usual condescending self—which meant he was bored and would soon start looking for ways to entertain himself. As long as he didn't commandeer the ship and take it for a joyride all over the planetary system…

"I just hope this turns out to be only a precautionary measure and not an actual necessity, Roland," Lasky said, then tapped the comms console in front of him. "Dr. Glassman, status?"

"All systems are in the green, Captain," came the response. "We're ready to leave on your order."

"Were you able to boost the Slipspace drive's efficiency?"

"As much as I could, but unless you want to burn them out, I'm afraid it's still going to take us a week before we reach our final destination."

Lasky turned to see Roland's avatar. "Please, break it down for me again."

The AI's light became slightly brighter. He used to do that a lot when asked about something, as if proud to become a teacher to anyone who would listen. "We've all grown accustomed to single-jump trips since we developed our Faster-Than-Light engines, because the distances we traverse are reasonably short. However, voyages this long require several jumps in order to compensate for the long-term effects of the disturbance caused by our passing through Slipspace—"

"Roland, I said 'break it down', not 'make it harder to understand'."

"Sorry, Captain. Basically, we _have to_ make several jumps or the ship will be torn apart once we come out of Slipspace."

Lasky nodded. As long as they managed to fulfill their mission, time was not a problem.

"Captain, Commander Palmer has arrived with the new Spartan fireteams," Roland announced. "Shall I start preparing our first jump?"

"Not yet, Roland," Lasky replied. "We're still waiting for our special guests."

"Ah, you mean Major Sullivan and his personal security detail?"

"They are more than just a security detail. You'll know when they arrive, but try not to make a fuss over it, would you?"

"Aye, aye, Captain. Do you want to see the new Spartans?"

"Yeah, why not? Might just as well see the faces of more people I'm responsible of with the hopes they will survive in combat."

Lasky was certain these Spartans had been given the best training possible. It couldn't be otherwise, considering their mentors were all of the surviving Spartan-II's and some of the -III's. But still, he cared deeply about their fates being in his hands.

He'd have to make sure to bring them all back home breathing and in one piece.

"Captain, your special guests have…" Roland started to speak but paused for a few moments, something that rarely happened. He had to have been _truly_ impressed and taken by surprise by what he was seeing.

"Roland, show them to their quarters. And don't say a word about this to anyone, please. As much as I'd love to share this with the rest of the crew, I've been ordered to keep this a secret."

"ONI?"

"Is there anyone else who _orders_ you to keep a secret these days?"

"Point taken. Ready for your announcement, Captain?"

Lasky nodded once more. He took a deep breath then spoke through the ship-wide comms. "Attention all hands! We're going into emergency Slipspace protocol. All non-essential personnel, report to your designated Cryo-chambers. Slipspace jump in T-minus 5 minutes."

Lasky headed back to the bridge, and by the time everyone was in their respective places—either in a Cryo-tube or in a relevant post—he was already overseeing the final steps prior to the jump.

Moments later, _Infinity_ broke orbit and disappeared into the depths of space. The mission had begun.

* * *

**Somewhere in space, 218 light-years from the Milky Way's center**

**September 24, 2558 (Human Military Calendar)**

The peace and quiet of the void beyond the Milky Way galaxy was suddenly broken as a Slipspace window began to open. The _Glorified Wisdom_, a Corvette-class Covenant ship, emerged from it, its command center crawling with Sangheili technicians.

One of them immediately spoke up. "Shipmistress, we've reached the coordinates."

"We have a very large object on sensors", another one announced only a few seconds later. "Forerunner architecture confirmed."

The hologram projector in the middle of the bridge immediately flashed, but the Shipmistress ignored it and moved towards the massive screen which served as a window. She preferred to look at this feat of Forerunner technology in all of its glory, not reduced to a simple holo-projection. And for a moment, everyone else paused and did the same thing as her—they all gazed at the magnificent starfish-shaped artifact created by the gods millennia ago.

"Perfect." As everyone returned to their respective duties, the Shipmistress just stared—and smiled. She was the only living being aboard this ship that could actually generate this particular gesture.

She was the only member of her species among the Covenant altogether.

"Send a message to Shipmaster 'Mdama", Shipmistress Catherine Halsey said. "We've found the Ark."

* * *

**Erratum: it's not 218, but 2 to the 18th (in other words, 262,144 light years). This thing just won't let me place the superscript!  
**


	3. Questions and Complications

**A/N: Sorry for taking this long to update! I just wanted to make sure I got it right. I'm sure you'll be pleased with the result.**

**I'm hoping to keep updating more regularly now. I'm still in school and with a job, but now I've finished structuring the main ideas for the next few chapters. I've got to tell you, I'm as excited as some of you may already be about how this story is developing!**

**Anyway, here is Chapter 3. Enjoy!**

**P.S.: Thanks again for such nice reviews!**

* * *

**Janus' lab**

**Atlantis, Earth**

**1200 hrs. July 27, 2013**

_C'mon_, Daniel thought, _just a little more_.

He was sitting in front of an Ancient screen displaying the equivalent of a computer progress bar. According to it, the decryption process was at 98—no, 99% percent now. It wouldn't be long.

Almost two weeks had passed since their discovery of the hidden section of the Ancient database. He had tried to be as patient as he could, but when he and Rodney had realized that the information available so far was nothing but a jumble and that it would take several days for the mainframe of Atlantis to complete the decryption process, he had decided to return to the SGC and do some research of his own—yet again.

Whatever little information he had been able to understand had only left him with more unanswered questions. He had seen a couple of Asgard and Nox terms, as well as some symbols he hadn't seen before, among the decrypted data. He had spent a few days going all over his reference material, hoping to find something that might look similar to those unknown symbols, but he had come up empty.

Then he had an idea. It had nothing to do with the symbols themselves, but perhaps—if they were indeed related to these "Precursors"—he would be able to find out where they had originated.

He had come back to Atlantis three days ago and requested to use the same lab he and Rodney had discovered five years before: Janus' secret lab. Here, in absolute peace and quiet, he had gone over all the data related to the _Destiny_ and its planned course. From what the _Destiny_'s crew had been able to inform, one of the galaxies the ship had visited after starting its journey was Pegasus. Perhaps it had also visited the Precursors home galaxy before?

It didn't take him long to find out that Pegasus had actually been the second galaxy the _Destiny_ had been at. And if the galaxy the Ancients had visited before arriving at Pegasus had also been the first "stop" along the _Destiny_'s path, then—theoretically speaking—the only candidate according to the Ancient record was the Andromeda galaxy.

Finally, today he had come here since before sunrise to start translating the data, as surely now it would be virtually complete and coherent. He had a theory; now he only needed to confirm it. And for that, he needed to dig deeper into the hidden database.

After more than 6 hours, he had finally reached a conclusion. But…

_No, it can't be._

"Any progress?" It was McKay's voice. When had he entered into the lab?

"It's another database," Daniel answered, turning back to see Rodney.

"Come again?"

"It's not a section of the Ancient database at all; i-i-it's a separate database."

"What are you talking about? What does it—?"

"It's the database of the Alliance!" Daniel said. "That's why there were traces of Asgard and Nox languages. It's everything on all of the four great races!"

"No, that can't be."

"That's exactly what I thought, but there's no other explanation. At least from what I've been able to translate so far."

"Daniel, there's no way it can be the Alliance database. From what we know, those races didn't become allies until after the Ancients had returned from Pegasus. Unless the Ancients dared return back to Atlantis to—" McKay paused then made the same face he always made when he realized something big.

"Rodney?"

He remained silent for a few more seconds. "Maybe they did."

"Did what?"

"Come back to Atlantis. It would explain everything." Daniel frowned. "Have you read a report about our encounter with an alternate version of Dr. Weir during our first year in the city?"

"I don't remember the details."

"She told us about her encounter with Janus, among other things. She said he'd taught her how to rotate all three Zed-PM's every 3,300 years or so, instead of using all three simultaneously, to prevent the power from falling below critical levels, which would've caused the shields to fail and the city to get completely flooded."

"But wasn't there a failsafe which would allow the city to rise up to the ocean surface if such a thing happened?"

"Yes, but that's not the point. See, after I learned all about that, I had a look over the power record from the last 10,000 years. It turns out that there were some anomalies every now and then, but since I was unable to determine what it had been, I just ignored it."

"What's your point, Rodney?"

"Maybe each of those anomalies is proof that the Ancients kept coming back here for something, maybe to create this database—"

"—as a backup," Daniel completed, "in case something happened to the device we found several years ago at the planet they used as a meeting place."

"But why the need to encrypt and hide it?"

"I think that's a no-brainer. Just think, if you were an Ancient hiding a valuable amount of information, would you just leave it available to anyone? Or would you wait for the right people to find it eventually."

"I guess you're right," McKay said. "So, what have you found on the Precursors?"

"Well, it turns out that the Precursors are not the Furlings after all," Daniel said. "But they did interact a lot after they met. Apparently, these guys were like the Ancients in our galaxy—seeders of life, highly advanced, large empire. But they also believed in something called the 'Mantle of Responsibility'. According to this belief, it was up to the Precursors to ensure that every race in their galaxy was at peace with each other and among themselves. They also believed that one day a special race would evolve up to a certain point where they could become their inheritors.

"Now, even though the Ancients didn't remain long in the Precursors' galaxy, both races left a strong impression in the other and influenced each other in a special way. They kept in touch for several millennia until, all of a sudden, the Precursors just seemed to vanish completely. The Ancients thought about going back to find out what had happened, but in the end they decided to remain in Pegasus and look after the humans they'd already seeded there."

"OK, here's an obvious question," McKay said. "If the Furlings are _not_ the Precursors, then who are they?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe the Precursors' inheritors?"

The Ancient screen suddenly flashed; the decryption was complete.

"Hmm… this is interesting," Daniel said.

"What?"

"Look, here. This is the only sentence written in Ancient related to the Furling records in the database. It says, 'all these secrets will become clear at…'"

Both Daniel and McKay kept staring at the screen for a few moments.

"Is that what I think it is?" McKay finally said.

"If you think it's a 9-chevron address," Daniel said, "then yes, it is."

* * *

**In Slipspace, en route to Forerunner Installation 00, designate "The Ark"**

**UNSC _Infinity_**

**1900 hrs. September 30, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

"Two minutes from our destination, Captain" Roland said.

The ship's AI had been monitoring everything aboard the ship—literally, _everything_—for an entire week now, making sure everything was in place and in order. Except for the people at S-Deck who had awoken during the last gap between jumps, most of the crew was still in Cryo-sleep, just waiting until they reached their destination. Power generations, life support, and every system aboard the _Infinity_—not even Major Sullivan and his… unusual bodyguards could escape from his careful tending.

Quite frankly, he was bored. After all the action he'd seen at Requiem, this was not challenging at all. He could only hope there would be something more interesting to do once they reached the Ark. But how could there be? The installation would be completely abandoned, wouldn't it?

"Thanks, Roland," the captain said. "Stand ready to wake everyone up. And tell Major Sullivan to come up here, please."

Roland just nodded. The captain's old acquaintance had insisted in remaining awake for the entire trip. Roland couldn't help but wonder what his intentions were. After all, if he was only here as an ONI representative, he wouldn't have brought _any_ kind of security detail, let alone the special one he had brought. Was he planning on going to the surface by himself? Did he have any special orders? Was he aware of something else?

"All Cryo-chambers report ready to open pods, Captain. And Major Sullivan is already on his way here."

"Thought he'd be. Thanks."

"Stand-by, Captain. We're returning to normal space in sixty seconds… fifty seconds…" As his countdown progressed, Roland could see expectation—and yes, even a little tension—building up in the faces of everyone in the bridge. Soon they would all know if the length of their trip had been worth it.

At thirty seconds, Major Sullivan came into the bridge. "Captain Lasky, talk to me."

"We're just about to find out how accurate your intel is, Sully," was the captain's response.

_Twenty seconds…_

"You'll see. I'm telling you, we've been at this for a long while now and are confident the results will be just perfect."

_Ten seconds…_

Lasky said nothing else.

_Five… four… three… two… one…_

As the _Infinity_ emerged from Slipspace, the view port became filled with a bright light which was being reflected from both the surface of a large body of water and from the snow covering the peaks of the mountain range surrounding it.

The ship was close to the surface. Very close.

Roland, the only one aboard with a fast enough reaction time, immediately took over the ship's controls and pulled the _Infinity_ upright—a feat in itself, considering the size and mass of the ship. In just a few seconds, it was shooting upwards toward the atmosphere, and with a few more maneuvers, the AI turned the ship in such a way it would now remain facing it from a safe distance, several thousand miles above the surface.

All the while, he had also been monitoring the reaction of everyone else in the bridge and all over the ship. Needless to say, everyone was shocked at first, and he even had seen fear in some faces. Captain Lasky himself was breathing heavily, trying to regain his composure.

But now, everyone was standing amazed at the sight of the imposing Forerunner installation they had arrived at. There was no doubt; this was the Ark.

Then something appeared on sensors. _Crap._

"Well Sully," Lasky finally said, "I'd say your intel was accurate, after all. Up to the point where we almost—"

"Captain," Roland interrupted, "the ship's sensors are picking up the presence of three _CCS_-class Covenant cruisers at 30 kilometers closing in on our position, and fast."

The captain didn't wait to hear more. "All hands, battle stations!" he shouted, then turned to see the AI's avatar. "Roland, have all of our weapons systems ready. I want to be able to blast them out of space the second we have a firing solution."

_That won't be difficult_, Roland thought. _Infinity_ boasted a significant missile network that could be implemented for ship-to-ship combat, anti-air defense, and orbital gunfire support for Marine forces. Even the Covenant fleet back at Requiem had been wise enough to flee into the planet rather than stay outside and face the mightiest ship in the UNSC fleet.

Placed throughout it were 1,100 missile pods of three types: Archer, Rapier, and Howler, totaling the ship's missile payload at 25,900 missiles. Close-in defense against enemy missiles, fighters, and boarding craft was provided by the ship's M965 Fortress point defense system, a network of 830 70mm automatic cannons. It also had a number of Mark 2488 Magnetic Accelerator Cannons—or Mass Drivers, as some preferred to call them—placed along the ship.

And of course, the _Infinity_'s primary armament was three CR-03 Series-8 Magnetic Accelerator Cannons and two reverse-engineered Mark I Energy Projectors. Originally, the ship had four MAC guns and only one energy projector until, after the First Battle of Requiem, FLEETCOM decided it would be better for it to have two such weapons as they had proven to be incredibly effective against energy shielding. Back then, considering the possibility of a Forerunner attack and knowing against whom they would be fighting, it had been better to be prepared.

The three MAC guns, however, would be more than enough to deal with these three Covenant creaking tubs.

As the ship moved into firing position, Roland made sure those guns were already fully charged and ready to fire. The AI immediately began stated to acquire firing solutions, assigning a ship to each MAC respectively.

"We're in position, Captain, ready to fire on your mark," said the lieutenant assigned to the weapons station.

Lasky didn't even take a moment to take a look at the ships about to be destroyed. "Fire!"

And before anyone could even blink, the three enemy ships disappeared engulfed in white-blue flames. The threat was gone—at least for now. Surely more ships would follow this ones at some point, and who knew how many troops they had deployed already at the Ark's surface? They would need the Spartans on the ground. And soon.

Roland knew Captain Lasky had thought the exact same thing he'd just thought as he approached the holotable and once again turned to see him. "I need a complete surface scan. We're going to require suitable places to deploy our fireteams and to start building bases."

Roland quickly made the requested scan, pinpointed some ideal coordinates, and relayed the information to all the Pelican pilots already on station and prepared to leave. He also displayed this information on the bridge's holotable for the captain to see. Now the only thing needed for it all to begin was his order.

"All Spartan fireteams prepped and ready for launch, Captain."

Lasky acknowledged. "Commander Palmer?" he said on the comm. "The word is given."

* * *

**Gate room**

**Atlantis, Earth**

**1500 hrs. August 3, 2013**

Daniel was standing on the balcony overlooking the Gate room in Atlantis, watching as the crew downstairs prepared a MALP to send it through. Woolsey was standing beside him, supervising everything.

Daniel had just returned from Washington D.C. the day before, after having been at Homeworld Command for a few days. Trying to convince Jack O'Neill of using the Atlantis Stargate—and of course the city's ZPMs—to dial the 9-chevron address he'd found a week before had not been easy, but he had been thoroughly investigating and he was well prepared with all the information necessary to defend his stance. Finally, Jack had granted him the permission to do as Daniel requested.

Jack's orders had been simple: dial the address, and in case of a successful connection, determine the amount of power being used, then send a MALP and determine viability. If too much power was being used, they would have to wait until Sheppard and his team brought back the new ZPMs to dial again; if not…

McKay was working on a console behind Daniel, trying to interface a virtual DHD with the Gate systems. He had already deactivated the bypass command he'd developed for the Midway Station years ago and which now prevented the Atlantis Gate from superseding the one at Stargate Command. The virtual DHD, a computer model of a standard Milky Way galaxy DHD, was meant to temporarily replace the one on Atlantis so that the address could be dialed exactly as it had been found. They had already learned from the _Destiny_ expedition that a 9-chevron address was more of a special code to reach a specific location rather than an actual set of coordinates, so this measure was necessary.

Daniel had learned a lot about the Ancient-Precursor alliance in the past few days. Not only was he certain now that they were originally from the Andromeda galaxy, but he had also discovered that the Ancients had left a small number of humans on one of the many planets in that galaxy by request of the Precursors. Still, the purpose behind this action had not been made clear by the Ancients. Now, he could only wonder if they would find humans the same way they had on Pegasus. And how advanced would they be?

"We're good to go," McKay said.

Daniel turned to see Woolsey, and they both nodded. "Dial it up," Woolsey said. Rodney stroke a key in his computer, and the dialing sequence began.

Though of a newer model, the Gate was dialing slowly, the same way the one at the SCG would. It took it a full minute to get to the eighth chevron, and by then everyone was already nervous.

"Chevron nine…" McKay's voice was trembling. "Chevron nine… is locked!"

The Stargate became alive, the usual _kawoosh_ emerging from it then settling itself into the puddle that made up the event horizon. Daniel smirked.

"Zed-PM power consumption… is just fine. We might be able to keep the connection for a few minutes and still have enough juice in them to dial two more times."

Woolsey addressed someone else in the control room. "Send the MALP through."

The probe started to move towards the Gate. When it crossed the event horizon, Daniel, McKay, and Woolsey walked up to the monitoring station. A few seconds later, they began to receive a video feed.

"What are we looking at?" Daniel asked.

"I think it's a large room. The walls seem to be decorated with…"

The three edged closer to the screen. They couldn't believe their eyes.

"Stargates?" Woolsey said.

"So it seems. They appear to be of the first model, like the one aboard the _Destiny_," Rodney said. "Telemetry indicates a viable atmosphere, no presence of radiation. We'd have no problem to go there."

"Why would a room be filled with Stargates?" Woolsey asked, still confused apparently.

"That's what we're going to find out," Daniel said, already dialing Jack's number on his cellphone.

_"O'Neill."_

"Jack, the address is still working. We're sending you all the information in a moment."

_"Is there something nice on the other side?"_

"Let's just say it's worth putting the team back together again."

_"I'll call them up,"_ Jack said.

* * *

**In orbit above the Ark**

**UNSC _Infinity_**

**2200 hrs. October 7, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

Lasky couldn't help but stand in awe at the sight of such a marvelous construction. Even Requiem paled in comparison to this place. It seemed so bright, so peaceful, and yet so majestic and mighty.

They had been there for a week now. The Spartans had found virtually no resistance on the surface so far, so it was safe to assume the cruisers had not yet deployed that many troops by the time the _Infinity_ had arrived. That, or they were hiding somewhere in the installation. It was so massive they could choose any secluded spot in it and stay there for as long as they needed to, just waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

For now, the ship had already been sending supplies and materials needed to build up several research bases at various key locations, including the Cartographer and the Citadel where Master Chief had stopped the Prophet of Truth from firing the entire Halo Array.

Preliminary reports from both thorough surface scans and the science teams working down there indicated that many of the Ark's main systems and structures had indeed been destroyed or damaged as a result of the firing of the replacement Halo ring, but had since been automatically rebuilt or repaired. Still, the Halo constructing systems were still offline, which—according to some of the science guys—was odd considering it should have been one of the first systems to be repaired.

For the moment, Lasky didn't care about that. Their mission was to decommission the remaining Halo rings, not to build more.

"Captain," Roland said, appearing on the holotable behind him, "sensors are picking up an anomalous energy signature coming from the surface of the planet."

Lasky turned and walked up to the holotable. A hologram of the Ark was being displayed above it, with a blinking light right in the middle of one of the Ark's larger arms. "What do you mean with 'anomalous'?"

"It's like nothing the sensors have detected so far on the surface. It's like nothing we've ever detected on any other Forerunner installation. As far as I can tell, there is nothing in that sector that could require such a large amount of energy. I mean, it is inside of a structure, but it is nowhere near large enough to need so much power."

The hologram of the Ark started to become larger until it displayed only the structure Roland was talking about.

"Do we have any team near that area?"

"None, sir."

"How long until we can deploy one there?"

"I'm not sure that would be wise as of yet. For all we know, the place could be leaking high levels of radiation."

"Alright. Keep an eye on it, see what else you can find about it."

"Aye, Captain."

Lasky walked back to the bridge window. He tried to find the possible source of that mystery energy signature with the naked eye, but it was impossible. A few minutes later, Roland told him the energy signature had disappeared.

Not three seconds later, the AI also told him Sully was calling him from his quarters. He walked once again towards the holotable and tapped the comms. "What is it, Sully?"

_"Is it true the ships sensors just pick up something strange down there?"_

"Wha—? How did you—?"

_"Request permission to take a team down there to investigate."_

Lasky frowned. "Negative. We still don't know if it is safe to go there."

_"I could find out for you."_

"How did you even know the sensors had picked up something?"

_"Please, Lasky, let me go down there."_

Lasky knew he could spend some time trying to make Sully talk, but it would be pointless. ONI operatives always had a way of knowing things, and they would never say how, no matter how much someone tried. But whatever the reasons, he still couldn't let him go down.

"I said negative, Sully. That's my final word."

The comm link went dead. Lasky walked away from the table.

Everything else remained normal for a long while, until an alert started to sound all over the ship. _"Warning. Unauthorized Pelican launch at Bay 6."_

"Roland, what's going on?" Lasky asked.

"It seems Major Sullivan decided to ignore your orders," Roland answered. "He just took a Pelican and left."

"Just like that?! Aren't there security measures to prevent such a thing from happening?"

"He overrode them all. Don't ask me how."

"Open a channel. Let me talk to him."

A green light flashed on the holotable. "Sully, what are you doing?"

_"You wouldn't let me go down there, my friend. You forced me into this. But don't worry, I'll be back in no time."_

"Sully—"

_"And don't even think about sending anyone else to follow me. I'm _dead_ serious here."_

"Sully!"

The channel went off.

Lasky didn't know what to think about his old friend's actions. He thought about firing a warning shot at the Pelican, but would that be wise? What if the shot actually hit him and sent him down to the surface on an uncontrolled re-entry?

"Roland, you think he's headed to the location you mentioned before?"

"I'd say that's a safe bet."

He couldn't let him go, no matter what he'd said. "Get me Commander Palmer."

After a few moments, her voice sounded on the comm. _"Palmer here."_

"Palmer, do you have any Fireteam available?"

_"Fireteam Hammer could be ready in five minutes. Why?"_

"Major Sullivan, just left the ship without authorization. I need them to go after him." Lasky paused for a moment. "You too gear up, please. Go with them."

_"Right away__, Captain. Any ideas on why he left the way he did?"_

Lasky lowered his head, his mind trying to comprehend what had happened to the man that had once been his best friend. "No."

* * *

**Somewhere in hyperspace, en route to M9R-748, Pegasus galaxy**

**_USS George Hammond_**

**1700 hrs. August 3, 2013**

Sheppard was standing in the middle of the bridge. After a long trip of two weeks, they were finally about to drop out of hyperspace… back at Pegasus.

Soon he would be able to see his team, his family, again. Teyla, Ronon, even the Athosians who had been invited over to the planet. Sheppard grinned. Teyla hadn't been the one to suggest that; it had been him. He knew she would never ask for such a thing, and he'd done so not only with her in mind, but her son as well. After all, what kind on a childhood would he have if he grew up without his own people… without his father?

"Relax John," Colonel Samantha Carter said to him. "I hadn't seen you this excited since… Actually, I had never seen you so excited before."

"Are you not?" Sheppard answered. "This is also your first time back in Pegasus in five years, _and_ the first time you come here in your own ship."

"Guess you could say that," Sam said. "Still, it's just a short visit, then I'm going back to searching for a planet with a Naquadria core from which to dial the _Destiny_. And you'll be going back to your job as second in command in Atlantis."

"You know, I never believed I'd ever say this, but I don't want to be second in command anymore. This is where the real action is."

Sam shrugged. "Not that much, remember? Our people have found the Wraith on very rare occasions since they came back here. Even when they have, there have been no Wraith ships involved at all."

Sheppard was about to speak again but was cut short by the lieutenant at the navigation station. "Colonel, we're about to drop out of hyperspace." Sam nodded.

John just turned back to the window. "Remind me of the reason why we're going to the planet where they discovered the ZPMs instead of picking them up at our base."

"We're picking up _seven_ ZPMs. That many of them will certainly give off a very big energy signature. Our base wouldn't be able to mask so much energy, but if they remained undetected for so many years, then the Ancient facility where they were found surely has a way to mask the energy readings."

"But if there are no Wraith ships out there…"

"I didn't say that. I said we've found no more ships, but that doesn't mean they're out there somewhere. It's just a precautionary measure."

As the ship came out of hyperspace, they received a transmission from the _Daedalus_. _"Good to see you arrived in one piece, Colonel."_

"Same here, Colonel," Sam answered. The _Daedalus_ had left Earth only a few hours before the _Hammond_ had, but their instructions were to deliver first some supplies to the Pegasus Forward Base and then catch up with Colonel Carter. Apparently, they both had arrived at the same time.

"Colonel," someone said, "sensors are detecting a ship coming from the other side of the planet. Hull configuration suggests it's a Wraith cruiser."

Sheppard turned to see Sam again. "What were you saying about there being no action or Wraith ships anymore?"

Sam didn't answer him. "Raise the shields and power up the Asgard weapons. _Daedalus_, be advised, we have a Wraith cruiser closing in to our position."

_"Roger that, _Hammond_, we're readying our weapons,"_ Colonel Steven Caldwell said over the comms._ "We're also picking up a distress signal coming from inside the Ancient facility on the planet."_

"Yeah, we're receiving it too," Sam answered. Her face sobered. "It's your team, John. They're trapped inside the facility, surrounded by Wraith troops."

"Can we beam them out?"

"Negative. They must have deactivated their locator beacons."

"Could you beam me down there?"

Sam turned to see him. "I think so, but first we should deal with that cruiser."

"Wait. What if the Wraith have already captured some of our people?"

Sam hesitated, then she said to the weapons officer, "Try to disable the cruiser without destroying it, just in case." She also advised the _Daedalus_ not to destroy the cruiser until they were sure there were no humans aboard.

As the Wraith cruiser came into view, Sheppard couldn't help but think it looked slightly different, but he couldn't notice the exact differences.

"Cruiser is in range, Colonel," the weapons officer said.

"Fire Asgard weapons," Sam said.

The concentrated beam of plasma streaked through space, hitting the cruiser…

…and dissipating itself amidst a barrier of light.

No one on the bridge could believe their eyes.

"That cruiser has shields?!" Sheppard exclaimed.


	4. New Enemies and Traitors

**A/N: I did it! Somehow, I managed to update in just a week. I hope you all like it.**

**By the way, I'm not going to be able to update next week, but I promise to do my best to update the week after that. In the meantime, wish me luck in my exams.**

**And once again, thank you all for your reviews. Enjoy!**

* * *

**In orbit above M9R-748, Pegasus galaxy**

**_USS George Hammond_**

**1715 hrs. August 3, 2013**

"They're firing on us!" Sheppard exclaimed.

Both ship's shields took the blunt of a large volley of shots from the cruiser's energy weapons.

"Shields are down to ninety percent," the officer at Sam's right said.

_"Colonel",_ Caldwell said, _"their weapons seem to have been upgraded too. Our shields are not going to be able to resist this kind of firepower for long."_

"What about _their_ shields?" Sam replied. "Did our weapons have any effect whatsoever?"

_"Minimal."_

"Sam, beam me down to the facility," Sheppard said.

"John—"

"Sam, I'm of no use here, and right now I don't think it would make a difference if I were! I need to know my team is well. Plus, we need those ZPMs. We can't let them fall into Wraith hands."

Sam hesitated, then she signaled her officer. But after a few tries, he shook his head. He couldn't do as Sheppard requested.

"It's not working, John. The facility is probably protected with security measures to prevent it."

"Then let me take an F-302. Once I'm in, I might be able to deactivate whatever is blocking us from using the Asgard transport."

"I'm sorry, I can't risk it. The cruiser could knock you out of space before you even reach the atmosphere." Sam paused, apparently thinking of something. "But maybe we can bring the ship down to the facility. Hopefully we can coordinate with our people down there to allow us access to the hangar."

She pressed the comm in her chair. "_Daedalus_, we're going down to the surface. Can you keep that cruiser busy for a while?"

_"We'll do the best we can, but hurry. Our shields are already at eighty percent, and quite frankly I don't want to test how much more they can resist against this new weaponry."_

"Roger that," Sam said. She pressed another button on her chair. "_Hammond_ to all teams on the surface, come in." Silence. "_Hammond_ to all teams on the surface, please respond."

_"Colonel Carter, is that you?"_ It was Teyla's voice.

"Teyla, what's going on?" Sheppard asked.

_"John! We're pinned down inside the facility. We've got several wounded here, including Ronon."_

"Ronon?!" The big, mean Satedan injured?

_"John, these things are _not_ Wraith. At least not anymore. Something's happened to them; they're stronger and more vicious than any others we've encountered before."_

The ship was already descending into the surface. "Teyla, listen to me. Sam is bringing down the _Hammond_ to the facility. We need you to find someone who can allow the ship inside." Once again, silence. "Teyla, did you copy?" Still nothing. "Sam, did we lose the connection?"

"No, the channel is still open."

"Teyla! We can't beam you out of there. We need you to open up the hangar doors so we can get inside and take you out. Do you copy?"

The facility was growing larger in the view port. It was massive, enough to harbor at least fifteen _Aurora_-class battleships. Suddenly, the roof of one of the hangars started to open. As the ship started to get into position to enter, Sheppard was able to see a large number of creatures crawling up the walls of the facility, trying to reach the roof entrance.

What were those things?

"Sam…" Sheppard said.

"Yeah, I saw them too," she replied. Then, to the weapons officer, "Have the railguns trained at those things. If one of them as much as gets at thirty feet from the entrance, shoot it."

"Yes ma'am," was the answer.

The radio came alive again. _"John, they will be inside soon!"_

"Don't worry, we're almost there," he said. "Well done, Teyla."

Right before the ship entered, the sound of several railguns firing thundered throughout the ship's hull. By the time the ship was finally settling down, the roof was closing again; the creatures had fled, possibly out of fear from the weapons used to fight them.

Sheppard immediately headed to the armory. He was geared up in less than a minute; then he rushed to the ring room aboard the ship. Once out of the ship, he started to call out Teyla's name. His voice echoed all over the massive hangar. He saw only one structure inside, possibly some sort of control room. _So that's how she got the roof open so fast_, he thought.

_"Sheppard, our shields may be restored shortly,"_ Sam said, _"but if we're to destroy that cruiser, we're going to need to install a ZPM before we return up there."_

"Copy that," he replied. He walked toward the control room, finding out the entrance was sealed by a large bulkhead door. If he'd found himself surrounded by a large assaulting force, that's where he would be, at least until reinforcements arrived; otherwise, instead of being a defendable position, it would have become a kill box.

Sheppard placed himself next to the door. He knocked a single word in Morse code: the first name of Teyla's son. He hoped that would be enough to ease Teyla's mind. After a few moments, the bulkhead opened; she was waiting on the other side, her P-90 aimed at him.

"John!" Teyla exclaimed. She dropped the weapon and embraced him. John could feel her body shaking. Was she scared? What could possibly have scared her?

"It's alright, Teyla," he said. "I'm here. It's over."

"No, it's not. Those things will find their way in here pretty soon. They… they…" She seemed to be lost for words at best, in the verge of going into shock at worst.

"Teyla, calm down. Where is everybody?"

"In here," she answered, regaining her composure. Sheppard went into the room; several wounded were resting against the wall, Ronon included. The others were already in shock. John realized he had been lucky, as Teyla had been the only one who had been able to keep it together just enough to look after the rest.

"_Hammond_, this is Sheppard," John spoke into his radio. "We're going to need a medical team standing by, and also some help to move these people."

_"I think we can do better than that. We're picking up their locator beacons' signals again. We can beam you all aboard now that we're inside. Do you have the ZPMs?"_

Sheppard turned to see Teyla, who nodded and walked to one of the corners of the room. Three large cases were sitting there, guarded by two soldiers with a wide-eyed expression. Sheppard opened all three cases to find three ZPMs in one and two in each of the other two. "Affirmative. All seven ZPMs are safe." He signaled Teyla to help him with one of the cases while he took the other two. "You may proceed with transport."

He felt the familiar tingling of the Asgard beam transporter. A second later, he found himself again inside the ship, along with the others who were at the control room. Then he realized something: if Teyla was right, the ship's shields would keep them safe, but without someone to retract the roof again, they would be trapped inside the facility.

Someone would have to stay in the control room and make sure it didn't fall into enemy hands until the ZPM was installed aboard.

He was willing to do it, but first he needed to know what he would be dealing with.

The EMTs began taking away the injured. Sheppard walked next to a gurney in which they had already placed Ronon. His eyes were closed, and John could see a large wound on his side, but he was breathing, which was a good sign. "Hey, Chewie. How are you doing?" Ronon opened his eyes; John could see fear in them, something he had rarely, if ever, seen before. "Calm down buddy, you're safe now. Look, I need to know what happened out there."

Ronon started babbling almost in a whisper. John couldn't make out what he was saying. "I'm sorry, I didn't get it." In that moment, Ronon grabbed John by the collar.

"They're not dead!" he said, looking directly into Sheppard's eyes. He thought for a moment his friend had said the same thing Teyla had said before, but Ronon repeated the word "dead" again, making John wonder of whom—or what—was he talking about.

"The Wraith…" Ronon continued. "It was feeding off Captain Brown… h-he started to change… to grow… tendrils… Oh, God! The growls… the howling…" Tears were already forming in his eyes.

"Ronon…" Sheppard began, placing his hand in his teammate's shoulder.

"DON'T!" Ronon exclaimed, flinching. "Don't let them feed off me! Don't let them get close to me. They're not dead! They're NOT DEAD!"

The EMTs started to take him away. Sheppard was now more confused than before, but he thought it would be better to have as much firepower available as possible. He ran back to the gurney and grabbed Ronon's gun, as well as two additional power cells.

"Teyla," he said to her, "go with him. Take care of him, and have yourself been taken care of too." He pressed the button on his radio. "Sam, if we're to get out of here, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go back there."

_"I was thinking the same thing,"_ was the response. _"It will take us about ten minutes to have the ZPM properly installed. You think you can hold the control room for that long?"_

Suddenly, John became aware of the howling outside the facility. It gave him gooseflesh. "I'll do my best. Beam me there."

* * *

**Unknown Forerunner structure**

**Installation 00, designate "The Ark"**

**0030 hrs. October 8, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

Palmer, clad in full GEN-2 MJOLNIR, raised her fist, signaling Fireteam Hammer to stop. She'd heard something further inside.

Just a while ago, they had arrived at the location where Major Sullivan had supposedly fled to. The Pelican he had commandeered was there, confirming the captain's suspicions. It was resting less than 20 feet from the entrance to a large structure, similar to the Librarian's shrine back in Requiem.

Now, as they advanced, she could definitely hear something. She signaled Hammer to keep moving as silent as possible. A couple of moments later, a friendly IFF signal appeared in the edge of her motion tracker. It had to be Sullivan.

Then she heard his voice in the distance. _"I'm sorry I'm late. Lasky wouldn't allow me to get out of the ship. I had to improvise."_

_"That was not wise."_ It was a female's voice. A familiar one. _"Someone might be here shortly."_

_"I warned Lasky not to send anyone after m__—__"_

_"And you thought he'd do as you said. We're going to have to do this quick. Did you bring it?"_

_ "I did."_ Sullivan answered.

The voices were growing stronger as the Spartans advanced. Palmer knew they were close, so she kept moving forward towards a corner.

_"What about the others? Did you bring them?"_

_"I did. They're on the ship."_

_"I want to see them."_

_"That'll have to wait."_

_"That's not what we agreed to."_

_"Hey, cut me some slack here. I barely managed to leave the ship. Besides, you are still to prove your trustworthiness before__—__"_

_"Trustworthiness? I was the one who gave you the information you needed to find the Ark!"_

_"And we almost got ourselves killed twice upon our arrival in less than five minutes!"_

_"Don't give me that. We both know that even a dozen cruisers would not have been able to stand against the _Infinity_. And Roland is a very capable AI. He could maneuver that ship as if it were a corvette."_

_"You will see them when _I_ deem it appropriate."_

Palmer finally was able to peek inside the room from which the voices came. It was a large, circular hall with at least two dozen weird-looking rings covering the walls. Sullivan was indeed talking to a woman in the center of the room. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the woman: she had lost her left arm. She gave a final instruction to the Spartans, and they all stormed into the room, weapons at the ready.

"Don't move!" she shouted. Fireteam Hammer took positions surrounding the two inside the room.

"Wait, don't shoot!" Sullivan took a position between Palmer and the woman.

"Sullivan, move. This woman is a traitor."

"She's not a traitor. She's working for us."

Palmer was taken aback by this statement. "What?"

"Trust me," Sullivan said. "She's on our side."

Palmer was not willing to let her guard down. She knew Catherine Halsey just enough to keep her M6H guns aimed at her.

"Please, Miss Palmer," Halsey said, "lower your weapons." But Palmer didn't comply.

"Commander Palmer," Sullivan said, "there's no need for this. If you just—" He stopped talking when she pointed one of her guns at him.

"You're not talking unless I say so," she said. Then to Halsey, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Halsey was entirely calm, unmoved. She seemed genuinely fearless, as if she were untouchable. "I'm just doing my job."

"And what would that be?"

"Why don't you ask Major Sullivan here?" Halsey replied.

Palmer turned to Sullivan. "Explain."

Sullivan took a deep breath. "Halsey contacted us a few months ago, claiming she had been able to collect some valuable information. We didn't trust her at first, but then we were able to confirm the reliability of her intel. She told us the Covenant were trusting her so far, which gave her a unique opportunity to help the UNSC as a double agent. She's been feeding us more intel ever since."

"None of you have answered my question yet. What. Is. She. Doing. Here?"

"Both of us were to rendezvous here at the Ark by orders from ONI. I don't need to explain anything else."

Palmer remembered what she'd just heard before entering the room. "You don't trust her. Do you?" Sullivan didn't answer. "You wouldn't place your full confidence in her, which is why you didn't even tell Captain Lasky about this. You _know_ you can´t trust her." He remained silent.

"I'm sorry, major," Halsey said and started to walk closer to him. Palmer followed her with her gun. "We both know she's right. You just admitted so. Which is a shame, really, because I was just hoping the UNSC would prove me wrong for once."

Suddenly, Sullivan fell to the ground. It had looked as if he'd received some sort of electrical shock, but it had come from nowhere. Halsey had not made a single move, but Palmer didn't care; it had to have been her. She aimed at Halsey's leg, and shot.

But it had no effect whatsoever.

She shot Halsey again, aiming at her chest this time. The doctor's lab coat… shimmered for a second. Halsey made a smile.

And before Palmer could even notice, every member of Fireteam Hammer was on the ground; they had all been impaled with energy swords. Several Elites de-cloaked all around her, including the executioners of her Spartans. She had beaten worse odds in the past, even before becoming a Spartan, so she was ready to fight until each and all of these hinge-heads was on the ground like her people.

Then, she saw an energy sword igniting right in front of her, by Halsey's side. She fired her guns repeatedly at Halsey's left, where the stealth Elite had to be. But as Halsey drew closer to her, she realized…

She felt a burning pain as the plasma blade cut through her left shoulder and saw her limb falling to the floor. She dropped to her knees, shuddering all over. Her body was about to go into shock, but her mind was not willing to give up as of yet. Then another, smaller blade penetrated her left lung. She looked up to see Halsey kneeling by her. The lab coat was gone, a full-body armor taking its place. The smaller blade was coming from Halsey's right fist, while she held the sword in a left, robotic hand.

"Now we're even," Halsey whispered to her ear. She was becoming a blur; her vision was being clouded, everything was fading away. She tried to fight it, but in the end, her strength left her, and she gave up to the darkness that befell her.

* * *

**Inside Ancient facility on M9R-748, Pegasus galaxy**

**_USS George Hammond_**

**1745 hrs. August 3, 2013**

_"Sam, they've breached the hangar! We've got to leave now!"_

The piercing howling of the creatures became stronger as they stormed into the facility. "Hang on, Sheppard," Sam answered. "Just a few more seconds."

She pressed the comms button in her chair. "_Daedalus_, what's your status?" There was no response. "_Daedalus_, come in, please." Static.

By now, Sam was feeling very concerned. Installing the ZPM had taken a few minutes longer that she'd originally thought, and she feared that by now it was already too late for the _Daedalus_. That Wraith cruiser was by far more advanced than any other Wraith ship they'd ever encountered, including the ZPM-powered Hive ship they'd fought four years before—which was odd because, to the best of her knowledge, the energy readings coming from the cruiser were nowhere near close to those given off by a ZPM.

She received a call from Engineering. _"Colonel, ZPM is installed and operating at 100 percent capacity."_

"Understood," she replied. She contacted John. "Sheppard, we're good to go. Open the roof."

She heard explosions and gunfire outside of the ship; the claymores Sheppard had placed around the control room must have gone off. _"Understood! Just give me a second!"_

Well over a second passed before the roof started to retract. "Well done, Sheppard," Sam said. "We're beaming you aboard now."

_"Negative! Those things could get their hands on the controls and close the roof on you! Get out of the hangar first!"_ The gunfire stopped. _"I just closed the bulkhead,"_ Sheppard said, catching his breath, _"but I don't think that'll stop them for long. They're too many."_

Earlier, when the _Hammond_ had picked up the locator beacons' signals of the people trapped inside the control room the second the bulkhead door had been opened, Sam had theorized that, somehow, once the control room was sealed tight, it blocked those signals. For that reason, she'd agreed with Sheppard to close the bulkhead only if the situation became truly desperate.

"Could you still open it once we're out?" Sam asked.

_"Not a chance. But I've got another idea. I'm going to try and blast a hole in the roof."_ The sound of Ronon's gun firing came back through the radio signal. _"This is going to take me a while. Get out of here! I'll be fine."_

Sam hesitated for a moment, but she finally gave the _go_ signal. The ship began to rise, and in just a few seconds, they were out of the facility.

"Try to beam Sheppard out now," she ordered. But nothing happened. She knew the _Hammond_ would have to raise its shields once they engaged the cruiser again, but doing so would mean leaving Sheppard hanging out to dry. Still, they had no other choice.

"Sheppard, if you can hear me, hang in there just a little longer." There was no response.

As they reached the upper atmosphere, the cruiser came again into view. The _Daedalus_ was nowhere to be seen, but neither were there any debris. The cruiser opened fire on the _Hammond_, and once again, the shield held the incoming shots.

"Shields are down to 99 percent," the weapons officer reported. Sam felt more confident hearing this. The shield had taken the exact same amount of enemy fire than the first time.

"Main batteries, return fire," she ordered. This time, two Asgard beams hit the cruiser. Its shields flickered, and then they finally failed.

In that moment, the _Daedalus_ came out of hyperspace and fired upon the now unshielded cruiser, damaging its engines. Sam immediately hailed the ship. "_Daedalus_, it's good to see you're still around."

_"Sorry if we worried you. Our shields were almost depleted. We were forced to take a hit-and-run approach. Otherwise, you would have found only our toasted remains floating in space."_

"Well, the cruiser is now a sitting duck. I don't think you mind helping us finish the job."

_"With pleasure,"_ Caldwell said. And both ships fired upon the cruiser once again.

But even with the ZPM powering the Asgard weapons, the cruiser was still resisting most of the incoming fire. It took several shots, but finally one of them got through, possibly hitting some critical system, and the Wraith ship exploded in a massive fireball—quite bigger than usual, in fact.

Now that the space over the planet was again clear, Sam ordered the shields lowered; John was still down there. "Sheppard, this is _Hammond_, come in." There was no response. "Sheppard, this is _Hammond_, please respond."

This time, the response was almost immediate. _"Try it now!"_

Sam gave the order, and a bright light illuminated the bridge. When it dissipated, Sheppard was kneeling in front of them, arms covering his head, as if protecting himself from an incoming attack.

"Relax, John," Sam said. "You're safe now."

Sheppard moved his arms to his sides, turned to see Sam, and exhaled. "Nice timing."

"Good job, Sheppard," Sam said while pressing her comm. "_Daedalus_, we have the survivors from the attack and the ZPMs. We're sending you one now."

_"Thank you, Colonel. We'll definitely need it if we encounter another ship like that."_

"Better another cruiser than a Hive ship. You know, I noticed the hull was somewhat more resilient now than before."

_"Yeah, we noticed that too. Any ideas?"_

"Not yet," Sam said, going over the data from the scans. "The energy output was high, but it didn't match that of a ZPM. It was more like—" She paused for a moment.

_"Like what?"_

Sam had to double-check the data. It was impossible, but there was no other explanation. "It'sconsistent to the output given off by a fusion reactor."

_"What? How?"_

"I'm not sure," Sam answered. "But I'm afraid there's only one place where we'll find the answer to that." She turned to see Sheppard, knowing he would be feeling the same way she was about that decision.

* * *

**Location unknown; presumably somewhere in the Ark**

**Date and time unknown; presumably October 8, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

_"Commander Palmer? Commander Palmer, do you hear me?"_

The voice was a man's. It sounded distant, almost incorporeal. When she opened her eyes, all she could see was white, a blur. Her body felt weightless, incomplete. Had she died and gone into some sort of afterlife?

It took several moments for her Spartan senses to kick in. Suddenly, she was fully awake, eyes wide-open, and she remembered…

She looked to her left side. Her arm was indeed gone. But why was she able to breathe without pain? She had a clear image of Halsey putting an energy dagger right through her chest. Had it been an invention of her agonizing mind? For that matter, why was she still alive?

She managed to sit upright and found herself in a Covenant holding cell, an energy shield guarding the entrance. A small corridor separated another row of cells from her own. They were in a brig, probably aboard a ship.

Major Sullivan was being held in a cell right in front of hers. "Thank God, commander," he said. "I was wondering if you'd ever wake up."

She had regained enough strength to answer him. "Save it. I'm only in this position because of you."

"Look, commander, I know you have reason to be mad at me, but—"

"Oh, why would I? I just lost four of my Spartans, not to mention my _arm_, because of your need to meet with that viper!"

"I've already told you, I was here under instructions from ONI."

"And you never told me what those instructions were."

"I'm not in any liberty to—"

"We're prisoners because of your orders! I'd say that confidentiality no longer applies under these circumstances."

Sullivan seemed to think it over for several minutes, during which Palmer started to make an assessment of their current condition. Except for her skinsuit, her armor was gone, which meant no way of communicating with the _Infinity_, let alone to attempt a breakout right away. She'd lost a limb and, since the severed veins and arteries had been cauterized, blood should have accumulated in the wound, causing internal bleeding. However, she was feeling just fine, as if such a thing hadn't actually happened. Given enough time, she would recover all of her strength. Even without her armor, eventually she would be able to find a way out. The only thing she'd have to figure out was, how?

"Information," Sullivan said.

This snapped Palmer out of her thoughts. "What?"

"That had been our first agreement. We would both exchange information."

Palmer was confused, but at least Sullivan was starting to come clean now. Perhaps she had made a point. "What kind of information?"

"She would give us intel on enemy deployment, findings, and research. In return, we would give her everything we had on the Forerunners history."

"History? Why?"

"That I sincerely don't know. I guess knowledge is power, and she would need a lot of that if she was to keep any sort of leverage among the Covenant."

It made sense. Back on Requiem, Halsey had admitted she desperately wanted to know _everything_ when she'd been placed into custody. But there had to be something else to it. "You said that was your first agreement. Was there a second?"

"Yes," Sullivan said. "She knew we had one half of what she called the 'Janus key', and we suspected she'd kept the other half."

"The 'Janus key'…" Palmer repeated. "Is that the name of the Forerunner artifact recovered just before the Covenant sent Requiem into oblivion?"

"Yes. She claimed to be the only one who knew how it worked, but that she needed both halves of the artifact to make it work. ONI had spent several months trying to make it work, to no avail. They finally had to admit that Halsey had been the one to find the artifact, so it could be possible she was telling the truth."

"But you wouldn't just give her away the artifact. Which is why they sent you to confirm her claim."

"And the _Infinity_ as backup. In case something went wrong."

"So, our mission to recover some old alien artifacts was just a cover."

"Not entirely. You saw those artifacts yourself."

_What?_ Before leaving Earth, Lasky had informed the _Infinity_'s crew about their mission, but he hadn't been entirely clear on what they would be looking for specifically. Palmer tried to mentally retrace her steps from when she'd walked into the structure looking for the major, and then it hit her. "The rings?"

"Exactly. Now, Halsey has a bigger grasp of Forerunner technology, which in the end helped her in her own research on the artifact."

"What do you mean?"

"According to her, the key provides the real-time location of every single piece of Forerunner technology in the galaxy. Apparently, she had a stroke of luck with her half and was able to extrapolate a single set of coordinates in space leading to a Forerunner installation."

"The Ark," Palmer said.

"The Ark," Sullivan confirmed. "As for us at ONI, we had discovered a Forerunner record telling of the very same devices we came here looking for. It also mentioned where they had been stowed away, but it didn't include the exact coordinates."

"So… each had something the other needed, and one of you offered an exchange."

"Sort of. We never told Halsey about our discovery."

Palmer frowned. "Then what did you offer her?"

Sullivan was about to answer her, when they both heard a door opening and footsteps walking into the brig. It was Halsey. She was wearing armor similar in design to the one Sangheili Rangers sported—full-body skinsuit with only a few pieces of armor plating and an EVA helmet—, yet quite different. Her left arm had been replaced with a prosthetic one, the likes of which Palmer had never seen before. The robotic hand had only four digits; two middle fingers, and two opposing digits, just like an Elite's.

_So, not an invention of my agonizing mind_, Palmer thought.

Halsey turned to look Palmer in the eyes. "Do you like it?" she said, moving her prosthetic arm. She must have noticed Palmer's wonder in her eyes. "I designed and built it myself. Of course, the tricky part was acquiring the medical equipment necessary to fuse it with my body. Still, I can't complain. The hand has turned out to be quite useful, especially when wielding Covenant weapons." She lowered her arm, tapped her leg armor plate with it, and her entire body shimmered. _Energy shields. That explains why not even one of my shots hurt her._

"I also designed this armor. Well, it was more of a redesigning based on the equipment used by the Elites, but I did build it from scratch, incorporating a few minor improvements. You know, it's amazing to see what our own hologram technology is capable of. You only need to tweak a module designed for MJOLNIR armor just a bit, and _voilà_." Halsey made a small movement with her left "fingers", and her armor was replaced by the lab outfit in which Palmer had seen her before. The prosthetic arm was gone. Then it all switched back to Halsey's true outfit.

"You should feel lucky I kept the medical equipment on board," she said, "including the flash-cloning equipment. You could've been dead by now."

Palmer's gaze was surely reflecting the rage she felt for this woman, but these words made her soften her stare just a little. Halsey had treated her wounds? The very wounds _she_ had caused? Why? Why kill Fireteam Hammer and leave her alive?

"As for your arm," Halsey continued, "I've already seen another Spartan before with a nice prosthetic arm, so I'm sure the UNSC will provide something good for you. That is, of course, if you are ever rescued." She then turned to see Sullivan. "And as for you, I should have killed you for betraying me. But you did bring me the second half of the key. And you might still be of some use to me."

She motioned to the end of the corridor, and the shield in Sullivan's cell disappeared. Two Elites walked into the cell, grabbed Sullivan, and brought him before Halsey. _OK, there's a hinge-head in charge of the brig. And these two are possibly standing guard outside._

Halsey pressed a button in her prosthetic arm, and a small section of it slid open. She reached into it and produced both halves of the Forerunner key. She handed both of them to Sullivan. "Go on, try it. Put the pieces together."

Sullivan took both pieces and tried to do as Halsey said. After several tries, he gave up and handed them back to Halsey, who took one on each hand, and in a single movement turned them into one. There was a bright light, and the brig became filled with several holograms depicting star systems. "You see now?"

"What did you do to it?" Sullivan asked.

"It's not what _I_ did. It's what the Librarian did. I'm not just the only one who knows how to use this key; I'm also the only one who _can_ use it."

"You can't be serious," Palmer thought out loud.

Halsey separated the key and placed both halves back inside her arm. The holograms disappeared. "I am. And if you had rescued me instead of trying to kill me, I would have helped the UNSC acquire everything the Forerunners left behind for us. But now…"

She motioned with her head, and the Elites holding Sullivan threw him back inside his cell. The shield was activated again.

"Do you really think we're just going to let you get away with this?" Palmer said. "There will be people looking for us. They will find us, and then they will take care of you."

Halsey turned to see her again. "Don't be so sure about that. This corvette is equipped with active camouflage, one I developed specifically for this kind of ships. Not even the _Infinity_'s sensors would pick it up. But still," and she turned to see Sullivan again, "I do hope they will send someone to look for you."

Palmer also diverted her gaze from Halsey to Sullivan. "What is she talking about?"

"Major, why don't you tell the commander here about the little agreement you made? The one you failed to keep up to?"

Sullivan looked down, as if ashamed. "In exchange for the coordinates leading to the Ark and assistance to operate the key, we offered her… to see her Spartans."

It all came to Palmer in a flash. _Did you bring them? … I want to see them…_

"There are SPARTAN-IIs on board the _Infinity_?" she asked.

"Yes," Sullivan admitted.

Palmer addressed Halsey again. "What could you possibly want with 'your' Spartans?"

"To save them," Halsey answered.

"Save them? How could they be safe with _you_?"

"You still don't get it, do you? Humanity was destined to inherit a Mantle of Responsibility for all living things, a Mantle left behind for us by the Forerunners. They believed we were worthy of looking over every single being in this galaxy. But how can we hope to protect life when we're bent on destroying it? How can we think we can bring peace to the galaxy when we keep fighting among ourselves? No, our race is not worthy of such responsibility, not yet.

"But soon, all that will change. Once we acquire all the treasures the Forerunners left behind for us, we shall use them to bring a cleansing fire upon every world know to us, and those found with fault shall perish in the flames of everlasting wisdom and justice. Only those found worthy will be given a chance to begin anew. I saved you so that you may witness what you brought upon yourselves, yet when the time comes, you will surely be among those who will burn and perish."

"But you and your Spartans will be among those worthy to be saved," Palmer concluded. Halsey only grinned. "My, you are such a piece of work. I can't say I'm surprised to hear you speak the same way these religious lunatics do. Still, lying to both humans and Covenant alike must be quite difficult."

"Oh, but I'm not lying to the Elites. They know everything about this. Hell, they even support it."

"You can't be serious."

"You'd be surprised. Many among the Sangheili have admired our race even since the final years of the war. And now that they false prophets are gone, they have accepted the fact that the Forerunners chose us as their rightful heirs. But they also know we're not perfect, and they are willing to see this cleansing through. For while we are reborn, they will take upon themselves the Mantle, guarding it until we're ready to take our place in this galaxy."

"You know the Spartans won't fall for this."

"They will come to see the truth. And even if they don't—" Halsey was cut midsentence when one of the Elites suddenly approached her and spoke to her ear in Sangheili, almost in a whisper. She responded with the same tone, also in Sangheili. Then, without another word, both she and the Elite walked away, and the sound of the brig's door closing echoed through the corridor.

"That kind of makes me wish I still had my helmet on," Palmer thought out loud. "The built-in translating program would have helped a lot there."

"Well, you have me," Sullivan said.

"Yeah, like you knew how to speak Sangheili."

"As a matter of fact, I do have a small grasp of the language."

"Is that so?" Palmer said sarcastically. "What did they say?"

"The one that just came in said something about the 'rings of life'. Halsey asked if the troops down there were already in position."

"What do you think it means?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Sullivan answered, "but I think one of the rings we found just activated."

* * *

**Gate room**

**Atlantis, Earth**

**1300 hrs. August 4, 2013**

"You know," Cameron Mitchell said, "when Sam took command of Atlantis and we all parted ways, I never thought there could possibly be anything else that would bring us together just one more time. Not after what we'd been through with the Ori, anyways."

"Indeed, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c replied.

Daniel smiled at this comments. Bringing SG-1 back together eight years ago had been quite a task for Mitchell, but he had succeeded, and the team had remained together for almost three more years. However, after the mission to the Ori home galaxy, Mitchell had been offered permanent command of the _Odyssey_, which would have meant fractioning the team yet again. At first he had rejected it; then, Sam had been reassigned to Pegasus, and Teal'c had been asked to return to Chulak, which was still in ruins, even though the Jaffa had managed to rebuild after the Ori's attack. So finally, Mitchell had accepted.

When the last Ba'al clone had been captured and the Tok'ra had invited SG-1, including Jack, to the extraction ceremony, they had realized that there was no longer a need for them to be together, but also that they had become a symbol of hope in the galaxy. Therefore, they had all agreed to take separate ways and keep contributing to Earth's common cause, but if something ever came up that could be of consequence to all humanity, they would come together once more and face it.

And here they were, united again, ready to begin another adventure.

_Well,_ Daniel thought,_ almost all of us._

Vala had completely resigned the SGC to take on a civilian life with the former host of Ba'al, and Jack was now head of Homeworld Command. Of course, he had come to Atlantis to supervise their mission, but he would not be joining them on the field trip. Sam was currently on her mission in Pegasus with Sheppard, but she would surely join them once it was over. McKay had been appointed to replace her until then; for the moment, he would have to do.

"So, Daniel," Mitchell said, "are you expecting to find Furlings on the other side?"

"I'm not sure yet of what we'll find," Daniel answered, "but I do hope it's something big."

"As long as it's not life-sucking aliens," McKay muttered.

"We're not going to find life-sucking aliens on the other side, Rodney. I've already told you."

"And you're certain of this because…"

"It doesn't matter. What's important is to find out if there is a race out there that we haven't encountered yet, people who could potentially become our allies."

McKay didn't say another word. Mitchell looked up and nodded to Jack, who in turn gave the instruction to dial the Gate. Once again, the process was slow due to the need to use McKay's dialing program. Daniel began to feel the excitement of stepping through the Gate once more, knowing there was a lot at stake in their mission.

_"Remember,"_ Jack said on the radio, _"if you don't find a way to dial back, Sam will pick you up after they've brought back the ZPMs. Please, spare her the trip."_

"Don't worry, sir," Mitchell said. "We'll find our way back before they need to do that."

The Gate activated, and Jack spoke again on the radio. _"SG-1, you have a go."_

"Thanks, Jack," Daniel replied. And the team crossed the event horizon that would take them to the unknown.

* * *

When Daniel reached the other side, he couldn't help but to be amazed. He had seen the images recorded by the MALP, but to see it with his own eyes… It was like nothing he had ever seen before. Not even the few Furling structures found in the Milky Way could compare to this, which suggested this had been built in the Furlings heyday. The Stargates lining the walls somehow added even more magnificence to this room.

"Alright," Mitchell said, "first things first. Let's find our ticket home, then—" He paused; Teal'c had signaled them to stop.

"We are not alone," he said.

Those words made everyone start looking to every direction, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a large number of what Daniel could only describe as saurian-like beings clad in armor materialized all around them. Both his team and the creatures raised their weapons.

"Well," Daniel said, "this could be a problem."

"You think?" McKay replied.

* * *

**A/N: I just realized something. I've forgotten to mention the fact that, though this is listed as a HaloxSGA crossover, I intended from the very beggining to include SG-1 in the story. Anyway, now you know :).**


	5. Unexpected Visitors

**A/N: I'm back! I know it's been three weeks, but honestly, I had a hard time trying to make this. My brain was left dry after the exams :S. Still, I hope this chapter will be worth the wait for you.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Location unknown, presumably somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy**

**1310 hrs. August 4, 2013**

For several minutes, no one dared move a muscle. The saurian creatures seemed to be expecting SG-1 to make the first move, or perhaps they were awaiting orders to attack. Either way, judging by the outfit and the weapons, Daniel had no doubt these were part of a race both intelligent and advanced. He took advantage of those minutes to carefully observe their characteristics: over two meters tall, reptilian skin, four-digit hands, and of course the rather odd jaws. He wondered if they had the ability to speak in a structured language he would be able to understand or at least identify, or if their communication was based only on growl-like sounds.

He knew there was only one way to find out.

"Listen," he said, "we don't mean you any harm. We're just peaceful explorers from another galaxy." The creatures didn't budge. "Cam, maybe we should lower our weapons to prove what I just said."

"I don't think so, Daniel," Mitchell replied. "These guys keep looking at us like we were dinner."

Daniel knew he was right, but they had to try something. "Look, we've come from a planet far away called Earth with the sole purpose of—"

This statement triggered an unexpected reaction among the creatures. He could hear some of them whispering, and Daniel was able to hear actual words, even though he didn't understand them. But when the creatures gripped their weapons more tightly and started growling menacingly, Daniel realized he'd said something that had upset them big time.

"They do not appear to have been delighted by your words, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said. "In fact, I believe it only made them more aggressive towards us."

"They know about Earth," Daniel thought out loud.

"Uh, I don't think they've heard nice things about it," McKay said.

"You are right about that," said an apparently human voice, a woman's, originating from somewhere further down the hall. Both Mitchell and Teal'c trained the weapons at that spot. The same voice then spoke a few words in another language, and the creatures surrounding SG-1 lowered their weapons just a little. Mitchell and Teal'c, however, remained in the same position.

Then Daniel saw an old lady, definitely human, coming out of the shadows and walking into the hall. She was wearing a lab coat, or at least he assumed it was a lab coat. Her left arm was missing, and the coat sleeve was tied in a knot at shoulder's height. She had a weary appearance, but at the same time, she looked inspired and determined.

"They have reason to distrust of anyone claiming to come from Earth, and so do I," the old lady said, resuming her initial statement. Her gaze became as menacing as that of the creatures around them. "Who are you, and why did you come here?"

Daniel now feared anything he'd say would just get them into more trouble. He was reminded of the time when he and Vala turned up at the Ori home galaxy, causing the series of events which culminated in the Ori crusade to the Milky Way. And yet, he now needed to know what these people had heard about Earth that could have made them so hostile towards its inhabitants. Moreover, he had to know _how_ they'd learned about Earth in the first place.

"I am Dr. Daniel Jackson," he began with a slightly shaky voice. "These are Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Dr. Rodney McKay, and Teal'c. We are members of a team called SG-1. We came here from our galaxy with the purpose of finding any available traces of an ancient race known as the Precursors."

"_Your_ galaxy?" the woman asked, her voice becoming more menacing, as if angered by the use of that pronoun. "What kind of authority do the UNSC think they have to say this galaxy is _theirs_?"

_UNSC? This galaxy?_ They were still in the Milky Way? Had he misinterpreted the information in the database? No, he had double-checked and even triple-checked the coordinates and the Ancients account of their encounter with the Precursors. He had no doubt they had traveled to another galaxy—the Andromeda galaxy, to be precise.

_But why a nine-chevron address?_ He had wondered about that ever since he had found it. Why not an eight-chevron address? He recalled reading a few of the theories revolving around the ninth chevron prior to its first activation; specifically, he remembered two: time travel and jumping between realities. Perhaps this was the case. Perhaps they had traveled to another reality, or to a different year.

Maybe even to a combination of both.

Daniel quickly thought of a couple of questions which would confirm his theory. "What year is it?"

He was hoping his dubious face seemed genuine, for he truly didn't understand what was going on. Apparently, it did. The old woman actually tilted her head with this question and took a while before answering, "2558."

_OK, we're in the future._ "What has become of the United States Air Force?"

The woman took several seconds this time to answer, like she was searching thoroughly in his face and those of his companions for anything that might give them away as liars. She finally spoke. "You really don't know?"

Daniel and McKay shook their heads. The other two still didn't move. The woman spoke again in the alien language she'd used before, and the saurian creatures disappeared the same way they'd appeared. It was only for a few seconds, though, as in a flash their P-90s were gone, taken from them by an invisible force. Then the aliens reappeared, weapons trained at them once again, but now closer than before. Way closer.

"You will be taken to a holding cell until I decide what to do with you," the mysterious woman said. "The Sangheili are a fierce, cunning, warrior race. You wouldn't last more than ten seconds against them if you try anything stupid. I suggest you cooperate."

All members of SG-1 looked at each other. They knew they had no choice now, and things could've been worse at this point. Mitchell turned to the lady. "Lead the way."

A few of the Sangheili—as the old lady had called the saurian creatures—escorted them out of the room, through a long hallway, and to the sunlight. The old woman and the rest of the aliens followed behind.

And when Daniel looked to the sky, he became lost for words entirely. He, along with the rest of SG-1, was standing in some sort of artificial world—for lack of a better term—looking at a galaxy very much like the Milky Way.

"This… is new," Mitchell said.

* * *

**In orbit above Wraith homeworld, Pegasus galaxy**

**_USS George Hammond_**

**1330 hrs. August 4, 2013**

Three years ago, Sheppard had found it hard to believe that the Wraith were finally gone. Now, he was having a hard time believing they were back, and stronger than ever.

When the _Daedalus_ had returned from Pegasus three years ago with intel suggesting the Wraith had retreated back to their homeworld—the same world where Sheppard had almost died "eaten" by an Iratus bug—, everyone became worried. For all they knew, the Wraith could be forging a new alliance between all the different warring factions, planning their next move against the galaxy or even Earth.

The IOA, knowing this was a unique opportunity, had decided to act on this intel as quickly as possible. They had sent the _Odyssey_, the only _Daedalus_-class ship with cloaking capabilities, to obliterate the Wraith while they were all in one place. The plan had been to fly into the Wraith-controlled system undetected and deploy several Horizon Weapons Platforms similar to the one the _Apollo_ had used on their preemptive strike against the Asurans years before.

However, when the _Odyssey_ had arrived, they had made a haunting discovery.

There was not even one ship in orbit. Every single Hive ship, cruiser, scout ship, and even the Darts were all landed on the planet's surface. But the view had changed. The clouds were now greenish instead of white, and when the ship had scanned the planet searching for life signs, they had found none–not even one. Telemetry from a second scan had showed a complete absence of a life-sustaining atmosphere.

Since Atlantis had returned to Earth, each _Daedalus_-class ship had received two Puddle Jumpers for covert recon operations. Colonel Mitchell, the new commander of the _Odyssey_, had sent both its Jumpers down to the surface to get a better idea of what was happening there. John remembered seeing the footage of both ships and getting a nasty feeling all over his body.

The surface was covered in foul, fungus-like growths, and the air was filled with… spores of an unknown kind. The Wraith ships themselves seemed to be producing them, so the Jumper pilots had decided to break into one of the ships through its fighter bay to find the exact source of the spores. Instead, they had found the Hive to be decaying, breaking apart, as if infected by leprosy–if such a thing was possible.

Coming out of the Jumper to explore the Hive on foot was out of the question because of the lack of a breathable atmosphere, but even from inside the small ship it was quite obvious the Wraith had been attacked. There were hundreds of bodies littered throughout the bay, some of which looked like something had scrambled the insides, and though it seemed like the Wraith had put a hell of a fight, in the end, they had been defeated. And yet, there were no enemy corpses anywhere.

So, who—or what—had slaughtered the Wraith?

Based on whatever little information Mitchell and his crew had been able to collect under the safest conditions possible, the eggheads at Homeworld Security had theorized that the Wraith had been attacked with some sort of bio-weapon which had caused them to go crazy and die in an apparently gruesome way. The IOA and Homeworld Security had ordered the system off-limits and the Spacegate removed from the planet's orbit, just in case it was something other than a bio-weapon.

That had been three years ago, and since then, both the _Daedalus_ and the _Apollo_ had made regular recon flybys over the planet to make sure the menace was still dormant and contained. As time had passed, however, seeing as how there had been no visible changes on the planet, the recon missions had become less frequent.

Today, looking through the viewport of the _Hammond_'s bridge, Sheppard wished those missions had continued on the same regular basis as on the beginning. Both his eyes and the surface scans were confirming what they all had feared since their skirmish with the Wraith cruiser.

The planet was empty.

"Sam," Sheppard said, "how many ships were on the surface?"

"According to the reports," Sam answered, "thirty-five Hive ships and well over a hundred cruisers."

"And now they're all back out there," Sheppard said matter-of-factly, "_and_ apparently now they're also spreading something that causes some sort of mutation on their victims and turns them into aggressive, mindless beasts. How did we let this happen?" The question floated in the air for several moments before he spoke again. "We should have launched those Horizons when we had the chance. None of this would be happening now."

"Sheppard, we both know we needed to understand what had happened to the Wraith before we destroyed all evidence of what could be a new threat in this galaxy."

"Well, now the threat is spreading all over Pegasus," Sheppard said, "because of us! Because of our indecision to act swiftly!"

"There was no way of knowing this would—"

_"Colonel Carter,"_ a voice on Sam's comm interrupted her. It was Dr. Zelenka.

"Go ahead, Doctor," she answered after a couple of seconds.

_"I think I've got something you'd like to see."_

"Roger that, I'm on my way," Sam said. "Sheppard, are you coming?"

"Yeah," he answered. Both of them waked out of the bridge and headed for the Asgard Core room. Dr. Radek Zelenka, as well as a few other scientists who had been stationed on the Pegasus Forward Base, had been reassigned to the _Hammond_ right after the Wraith attack on M9R-748 the day before. The rest of the base staff had been taken aboard the _Daedalus_, which was now on its way back to Earth until a proper threat assessment was made. He was now going over the data from previous surface scans, as well as from the scan made just ten minutes ago, in the hope of finding something they'd lost before.

"What did you find, Doctor?" Sam asked when they arrived.

Zelenka beckoned them to one of the screens. "This," he said, pointing to a section of the surface where a Wraith Hive was clearly visible, "has been present in all scans until now."

"I assume it's no longer there in our scan," Sheppard said sarcastically.

"Obviously," Zelenka said, somewhat offended, "but there's also a large rift behind it, extending for a few kilometers beyond the Hive. We thought it was a natural occurrence in the surface, maybe a dried riverbed. Now look at this." He pointed to a small formation located inside the gap at the forward section of the hull. "We had theorized this was part of the Hive and that it had fallen off as a result of decay or rough landing."

"And it's not," Sam said, more a question than a statement.

"It's not," Zelenka said, pressing some buttons on the keyboard. Another image popped up on the screen. "This image is from our scan."

There was a large crater where the Hive used to be, and the odd formation had remained there. Zelenka zoomed the image in. "Do you see it?"

Sheppard had to focus really hard before he could make out a bulbous shape, almost symmetrical and definitely artificial in nature—but not of Wraith origin. "What is that?"

"A ship," Zelenka said.

"A ship?" Sam asked, wonder in her face.

"The rift I showed you before? It's a perfect straight line, which is something impossible to happen naturally. If my calculations are correct, it ends exactly where this object is located, or at least it did before the Hive ship landed."

"It's a crash mark," Sam said, apparently understanding where Zelenka was going with all this.

"Yes. The object is roughly 300 meters large, and it looks like it had sustained some battle damage before landing here."

"You mean crashing, Doc," Sheppard said. "I don't think I've seen something like this ever before. Are we dealing with a new race or something like that? Because I haven't seen anything like this before."

"I don't think any of us has," Zelenka said, "but the fact is that we've been in this galaxy for over seven years. By now, we should have already met whoever built this."

"Excuse me, Radek," Sam said, "are you telling us what I think you're telling us?"

Zelenka shrugged. "I don't think this ship was built anywhere in _this_ galaxy."

"Then where did it come from?" Sam wondered out loud.

Sheppard suddenly thought of something. "Didn't we keep a couple of the MALPs from the Forward Base?"

"I think so," Sam replied. "Why?"

"Is there a way we could beam there down there? Right inside of that ship?"

* * *

**Location unknown**

**Local date and time unknown**

**Approximately 1400 hrs. Atlantis Time, August 4, 2013**

"So, now what?" McKay asked. "You plan to talk our way out of this, Daniel? Because I don't think these people are as reasonable and nice as they seem to be."

"Rodney, don't complain," Daniel replied. "It could've been worse."

"How? How could it have been any worse?"

"We could be dead," Daniel said. This gave McKay pause.

"We've come out of really worse situations before," Mitchell said. "There's no reason to panic… yet."

He was right. So far, after exiting the underground complex housing the Stargates, they had only been taken aboard a small transport ship via some sort of gravity lifting system, and then flown all the way to a massive plateau. Daniel had been able to assert as much only because the sides of the ship had remained open for the entire duration of the trip—not a long one, anyway. Suddenly, in just the blink of an eye, they had found themselves into a hangar bay which had come out of nowhere. Daniel's first thought was this place was cloaked or even out of phase with their dimension. After all those years in the SGC, he had learned to consider even the wildest possibilities.

Once they had come out of the alien craft—in the same way as they had entered—, their escort had walked them through a corridor and into a brig with force field-secured cells. They had been taken into a separate cell each, close enough at least to allow them to talk to each other. Two guards remained inside for a while, and only a while ago had they left.

"OK, here's what I think so far," Daniel said. "We dialed a nine-chevron address, which created a wormhole that took us into the future, and possibly, into another reality as well."

McKay shot him a double-take. "How could you possibly know that?" His voice, instead of reflecting sarcasm as usual, carried curiosity in it.

"When I ask the old woman which year was it and what had happened to the Air Force, she seemed somewhat intrigued. You'd think this far into the future the world would already know about the Stargate Program and who'd been managing it. Instead, it was as if the Air Force—or the United States, for that matter—are no longer of any importance in this era."

"Huh, I'd been wondering why all the weird questions in the middle of our Mexican standoff."

"Actually, McKay," Mitchell said, "a Mexican standoff is when—"

"I know what a Mexican standoff is. It was just a metaphor."

"A bad one."

"It doesn't matter! You got the point."

"Right," Mitchell concluded. "Anyway, is it just me or that woman does bear some resemblance to Linea?"

Everyone looked at him. "How could you possibly compare her to Linea if you never actually met her?" Daniel asked.

"No, but I did read the file. Cold, calculating, even kind of unstable. I mean, I don't know how the Destroyer of Worlds would have looked like, but if you asked me, I'd say that old gal we just met is her."

"She does seem like she is concealing some kind of deep, dangerous secret, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said.

"See? Thank you, Teal'c," Mitchell said. The old Jaffa just acknowledged with a nod.

"I guess you're right," Daniel conceded, "but right now, she's the only human we've found so far and the only one who speaks the same language as these aliens. I'm sorry to say this, but right now, she's our only option of learning where we are and what has happened in this reality."

The sound of the brig's door opening echoed through the corridor separating the holding cells. The old woman walked in and immediately fixed her eyes on Daniel. "The United States ceased to exist as an independent country hundreds of years ago," she said, "shortly before the formation of the United Nations Space Command and the Unified Earth Government."

Daniel was baffled for a couple of seconds, until the woman spoke again. "That's the answer to the question you asked before." Then she signaled with her head to someone on the far side of the room, and the force fields were lowered.

"I am Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey," the woman said. "I'm sorry for the treatment you've received, but you must understand that, when you're at war, you can trust no one. Come with me, please."

SG-1 looked at each other. They left their cells and followed Dr. Halsey hesitantly. She led them back to the hangar and a series of corridors until they reached a large room crawling with Sangheili. The massive window at the front was filled with a beautiful landscape of the artificial world's surface, what looked as its core, and the space beyond. If Daniel had to guess, he'd say this was the control center of the alien base… or the bridge of a ship.

"Welcome to the _Glorified Wisdom_'s bridge" Dr. Halsey said, confirming Daniel's latter suspicion. "I'm sure you have many more questions to ask."

"Yeah," Mitchell said. "For starters, what the hell is going on here? Not an hour ago, you were treating us as war prisoners, and suddenly your mind has changed?"

"It was not suddenly, Colonel Mitchell," she replied. "In fact, I am still dubious about you, but all evidence is in your favor."

"Evidence?" Mitchell asked.

"Your weapons, for example. Your P90s. There is no record of them ever been manufactured, but they do share a certain resemblance to a 19th century submachine gun known as the M70, which is also the ancestor of the newest M7/Caseless SMG. Your uniforms are like nothing ever used by the United States Air Force. The probe you sent before you came, primitive as it may be, is unique in its design. And the symbol your friend sports in his forehead." This she said motioning to Teal'c. "There is no language in this galaxy where you could find such a symbol."

"You haven't even met the Jaffa in this realty?" Daniel said before he realized he hadn't proposed his theory yet.

"So, you do come from a different reality, aren't, you?" Halsey said. Before Daniel could mutter another word, she continued. "I know about the theory of the multiverse, Dr. Jackson. The fact that you seemingly appeared out of nowhere inside a Forerunner structure with no idea of where you were or what was happening here is the final confirmation. And now that we've settled that, I presume your next questions will be focused on finding out how different is this reality from yours."

Several second passed without anyone saying another word until Daniel thought of the proper question to ask. "You said you're at war. May I ask with whom?"

Halsey smiled. "I'm afraid in order to answer that, Dr. Jackson, I'll need to give you all a long historical review."

And during the next twenty minutes or so, Catherine Halsey briefed SG-1 on the last five hundred of history of Earth, the UNSC, space colonization, the insurrectionists, the genocidal war against the Covenant, a religious collective of races bent on eradicate any and all traces of mankind, the discovery of something called the Halo Array, and the Flood infection. Daniel wasn't sure about his friends, but he was both frightened and fascinated at the same time to hear all this, as well as intrigued by the fact that, despite humanity had had its own problems among itself, and recently with other races, this reality had remained completely free of the Goa'uld domination and the Ori invasion.

This also made him wonder, why had it taken this people so many years to reach other worlds. Had they never learned how to use the Stargate? How come she hadn't even mentioned it at all? On the other hand, he was also wondering what was this artificial world and why there were so many first-generation Stargates stored there. Halsey had mentioned earlier the word "Forerunners", both when talking about the place they had arrived at when describing the Halo Array. Who were these Forerunners? Perhaps the inheritors of the Precursors' Mantle mentioned in the Ancients' record? How many Stargates had they collected, and why?

"It took a Covenant civil conflict and the support of the Covenant Separatists to finally win the war, defeat the Flood, and eliminate the impending threat of the Halo Array," Halsey said, snapping Daniel out of his own thoughts, "and humanity prevailed. That was five years ago. But instead of establishing a truce with the defeated races, the UNSC leadership decided to switch roles and eliminate them.

"I'm part of a very small fraction of humans who were against this action. Most of us were hunted down and executed. I barely managed to escape with my life and find refuge with the Sangheili, who were now in the midst of a new war for the survival of their race. I've been with them ever since, searching for a refuge amongst the stars. They have been kind enough to put me in charge of one of their ships to achieve this goal. Just a few weeks ago, we found this place, this Forerunner Installation known as The Ark."

"Wait," Daniel said. "Who exactly are the Forerunners?"

"You mean, who _were_ the Forerunners, Dr. Jackson," Halsey said. "The Forerunners were the most advanced race in this galaxy a hundred thousand years ago."

"More than the Ancients?" Daniel asked. Halsey frowned at this, which made Daniel wonder… "You don't know who the Ancients are?"

"No," she replied.

"Well, then I think it's time for you to know about _our_ history," Daniel said.

"Daniel…" Mitchell said with a tone of warning in his voice.

"Cam…" Daniel replied. "If Dr. Halsey has been kind enough to shed some light in the events of this reality, I think it's just fair that we do the same." He tried to make a small sign with his face, to make it clear he didn't intend to say everything. Mitchell seemed to understand, as both nodded knowingly.

Now it was Daniel who did all the talking, explaining as much as he could about the discovery of the Stargate and the Stargate program, as well as the war with the Goa'uld and the Ori. He thought about mentioning Atlantis but in the end he kept this information to himself. He did, however, talk about the Ancients, their vast influence in the Milky Way, and their Alliance of Four Great Races.

"In fact," he said, "that's the reason why we're here. We found an Ancient text describing their journey to other galaxies. Among other things, it mentioned their encounter with a race known as the Precursors who resided in what we call the Andromeda galaxy, about two million light-years away from Earth. It appears they forged a specific and separate alliance with them millennia ago, and it also contained the Stargate address leading to it. That's why we came here, to search what was left of the Pre—"

"Hold on," Halsey interrupted. "You do realize you are still in the Milky Way, albeit in a different reality?"

"Yes," Daniel answered. "In fact, that's bugging me a little. I've been thinking that perhaps the answer may be in another text we found along with the Ancient record, but it's written in a language I've never seen before." Then he thought of something. "Maybe there's something back at the structure we arrived at that could help me translate it—some sort of cypher or something."

"Why do you think that?" Halsey asked.

"Honestly, I don't know," Daniel said. "Call it a gut feeling."

Halsey seemed to mull it over for a few moments. She turned to some of the Sangheili and spoke to them in their language—at least Daniel thought it was their language. After several minutes, she turned again to SG-1. "These Sangheili will accompany you back to the shrine. This," she said, motioning to one of the aliens, "is Edo 'Nodam. He knows our language and will serve you as translator. I'm also placing a Phantom dropship at your disposition. I will join you later so I can assist you in anything else you may need. I hope this is enough payment for previous grievances, at least for now."

"Thank you," Daniel said.

And with that, SG-1, escorted by their new companions, left the bridge and headed for the hangar. True enough, a ship just like the one that had brought them here was waiting for them, hovering over the floor and with its gravity lift active, beckoning the team closer. Once aboard, the ship speeded out of the hangar and through the air, taking them back to the Stargate.

Mitchell had signaled the team to remain silent during the trip. Everything they needed to discuss, they'd discuss later. For now, the only thing that mattered was to find a way to dial back to Earth—if such a thing was still possible—to report everything they'd seen and heard so far.

* * *

**In orbit above Wraith homeworld, Pegasus galaxy**

**_USS George Hammond_**

**1530 hrs. August 4, 2013**

"MALP-1 is almost in position, Colonel," Zelenka said. "MALP-2 is still en route."

"Thank you, Radek," Sam said. She was working behind him, using the Asgard computer core to generate a 3-D model of the crashed alien ship, based on the data from additional scans and telemetry acquired from the probes. The latter was a bit more problematic, as the interior of the ship presented the same amount of decay as the Wraith Hives—which was odd, considering the non-organic nature of this ship.

Still, the results were, so far, enlightening. The MALP-2 had already found several shield generators, as well as some advanced ship-to-ship combat weapons, scattered throughout the outer hull. The MALP-1 had been beamed down to what they'd believed was the engine room, and it had turned out they were correct. From there, the probe had made its way through the debris, heading for the power room.

Sam was beginning to think the Wraith had, somehow, overcome the plague that had befell upon them and their planet, found the wrecked ship, and reverse-engineered its shield-generating ability. But since a shielding system required a lot of power to operate, they also had to have found a way to increase the energy output on their ships. And the data collected from the battle the day before proved so. It was only a matter of finding out if the Wraith had also retrofitted their ships with a new power system adapted from the one in this ship.

Then, there was the other thing: finding out from where could this ship had come from. She had been considering using the crash mark's relative position to the approximate location of the planet at the possible time of reentry to determine the exact point in space where the ship had emerged from. Then, assuming the ship had not made several hyperspace jumps at different locations, she would be able to extrapolate the origin of the ship. Finally, a while ago, she'd decided to try it. It was a long shot at best, but it was all they had.

"MALP-1 has reached location," Zelenka said. The image from the probe showed a large room with a core like nothing Sam had seen before. "Scans indicate there are small traces of tritium all over the place."

"Hmm… Tritium is one of the isotopes of hydrogen, and it can be used for fusion reactors on Earth," Sam thought out loud. "So, this is indeed an alien fusion reactor."

"It would appear so, yes," Zelenka said.

Sam heard footsteps. She turned to see Sheppard and Teyla standing by the entrance. "Hey, what's the news?" Sheppard asked.

"Well," Sam said while modifying the model she'd been working on, "it seems like the updates to the cruiser we fought yesterday did come from this ship." She diverted her eyes from the Asgard screen to see Teyla. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Colonel," she answered, "although I think this experience is going to haunt me for a long time."

"I can imagine," Sam said. "I only saw those things from the bridge, but seeing them up close must have been quite frightening."

"Yeah," Sheppard said. "Even Ronon was freaked out to death."

"How is he?" Sam asked. She knew they'd been spending a lot of time in the infirmary with him after his surgery.

"He's conscious," Teyla said, "but he's quite… worried."

"He wouldn't stop apologizing for losing it the way he did," Sheppard added. "But from what the doctor told us, it was just probably a result of going into shock after he got injured."

"How did he even get so badly injured?" Sam asked.

"From what he told us, during the first attack, one Wraith came out of nowhere, grabbed him, and sent him flying about 20 feet away. He almost got impaled himself with a rock upon landing. It barely missed him."

"He was unconscious and had a severe bleeding when I found him," Teyla said. "Captain Brown was providing cover for me while I tried to contain it. Then I saw the Captain on the floor and a Wraith materializing in front of him."

"Ronon chose that moment to wake up," Sheppard said. "He saw the Wraith feeding off Brown and the transformation he suffered. The shock just made it worse."

"He's tough," Sam said. "He'll get over this."

"Colonel," Zelenka interrupted, "both MALPs have completed their surveys. Shall I beam them up?"

"Is that wise?" Sheppard asked.

"No," Sam said. "Who knows what kind of thing we'd be taking aboard?"

The Asgard core beeped. The background program she'd left running had completed its calculations. Sam turned to the screen and stared at the results for several moments in disbelief.

"Sheppard," she said, "remind me, where did the nine-chevron address Daniel discovered lead to?"

"From what they told us in their last transmission from Atlantis… the Andromeda galaxy. At least I think it was—"

"You _think_?"

"No, sorry, I'm sure it was the Andromeda galaxy. Why? What's the problem?"

"The problem is," Sam said gravelly, "according to these calculations, the ship we've just found originally came from the Andromeda galaxy."

* * *

**Forerunner Installation 00, designate "The Ark"**

**_Glorified Wisdom_**

**2300 hrs. October 8, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

_Soon, my dear_, Halsey thought while staring at one of the holograms in front of her. _Soon_.

She was at her private lab aboard the ship, working on the Janus Key, holding it with both hands while trying to catalog as many locations as possible now that it was finally complete. The last few months of research on it had proven… _almost_ unfruitful. She still couldn't believe how lucky she'd been to be able to extrapolate the Ark's coordinates during the only successful attempt to extract data from her half of the key.

_Hell, I still can't believe how lucky I am to have made it this far,_ she thought. She knew she was only alive today because Jul 'Mdama was a blood-thirsty, vengeance-driven Elite who didn't care to throw honor off the window in order to make the UNSC pay for the death of his wife and compatriots. This she had learned through several accounts of her crew. 'Mdama had seen in Halsey a unique opportunity to not only find but also revive Forerunner tech still undiscovered by humanity, and he didn't care to use one human in order to destroy the rest.

Of course, if she had been given the option, she would have preferred to return to the relative safety of imprisonment in one of ONI's secret facilities than to remain in the midst of the sworn enemy of the human race. But after being betrayed by the UNSC, she'd had nowhere else to run than straight into the Covenant hands—or hand, specifically. The Didact's Hand. Now, even though a hatred for some of her own kind was burning inside her, she was only trying to survive by any means necessary.

Still, she was hoping against all hope that John would not blame her for her actions.

When she had learned that he was alive, she had felt infused with new life, with hope, with purpose. But also with a bitterness that gnawed through her soul. ONI had tried to make her believe for a long time that her favorite Spartan had died, and at times she'd feared it was true. But John was not only the most capable Spartan she'd met; he was also the luckiest Spartan _alive_. And she was sticking to that thought. Years ago, when he'd rescued her from a Covenant carrier, she'd told him that his luck had rubbed off on her.

She believed this now more than ever. The fact that 'Mdama had entrusted her with a Corvette and a fairly competent crew should have been more than enough to confirm it. But when some of the Sangheili aboard her ship had revealed their true allegiances to her, she'd been stunned. They were neither Storm nor entirely sympathetic to the Arbiter, but belonged to a smaller faction which believed in the Reclaimer rights handed down to humanity by the Forerunners. They feared 'Mdama would ultimately bring upon their race the wrath of the gods if he kept fighting their chosen ones. On the other hand, they were also convinced that the current human leadership was walking down a path of self-destruction that would eventually affect every living being in this galaxy.

It was perfect. They had pledged their loyalty to her, even made her leader of their renegade faction. If she played her cards right, they would be able to both overthrow 'Mdama and eradicate the corrupt elements in the UEG and all its branches. And she would have her revenge.

Of course, she had been convinced by her newfound allies to play the role of a sycophantic religious freak in front of both 'Mdama and the UNSC if she was to survive longer. But even now, she was suspecting 'Mdama was already questioning her allegiances.

The 'intergalactic travelers' she'd just found now provided her with a new option.

She believed they were not telling her everything, but then again, neither was she. If anything, she had twisted part of the story to her favor, tying to appear as the victim and not the enemy. Not that she wasn't a victim. Still, now, if they ran into the UNSC—who would surely be looking for Commander Palmer and Major Sullivan—, and they told another version of the story, SG-1 would find themselves wondering who was telling the absolute truth. At best, it would buy here some time before losing such a valuable asset. Who knew? If they found new knowledge about the Forerunners' history or even something leading to a new treasure trove of technology before the UNSC found them, it would give her some really needed leverage with the Covenant.

Her lab's door opened. "Shipmistress Halsey!" It was Guko 'Zuram, her Sangheili right hand and fifth columnist. "The Didact's Hand is demanding to speak with you."

She sighed. "Did he say why?" Her question carried a sarcastic, defying tone, even though she knew there was no other choice but to comply as quickly as possible if she was to let 'Mdama believe she was loyal to him. She stood with the Key in her hands, separating both halves and storing them in her robotic arm before heading to the bridge.

"Link status?" Halsey asked once she got there.

"Stable, Shipmistress," was the answer of the Sangheili at the comms station.

Halsey walked up to the holo-projector at the center of the control room where the image of Jul 'Mdama, the 'Didact's Hand', illuminated her face. His eyes were glaring menacingly at her.

"Have you found anything useful at the Ark?" 'Mdama asked bluntly in his native language.

Thankfully, Halsey had already spent enough time learning how to speak, not only understand. "There's still so much ground to cover" she replied in the same language. We've barely begun to—"

"I don't want excuses!" he ranted. "I am well aware that the _Infinity_ is already at the Installation. They've already destroyed three of my cruisers, the same cruisers I had sent to support your small operation there!"

He knew that the _Infinity_ was at the Ark? She had been careful not to reveal such a delicate thing to him. He was supposed to remain oblivious to his secret meeting with Sullivan, after all. _So, I have someone feeding him information. I wonder how much._ She was playing a dangerous game here. If she said something recklessly, it was over. However, 'Mdama had already screwed up; in his rage, he had unwittingly let on that he had a plant in her midst. It might have given her the upper hand.

"Maybe so," she replied, "but is the loss of three cruisers such a big price to pay for this?" She pulled both pieces of the Key from within her prosthetic arm and raised them over her head so that Jul could see them clearly. "The crew of the _Infinity_ was so busy taking down your petty little ships that they never noticed my cloaked Corvette was too close to them. I managed to get a SpecOps team aboard, undetected, and they were successful in retrieving the second half of the Librarian's Gift."

Jul held his gaze in apparent unbelief for a full ten seconds before finally speaking again. "Impressive, Doctor Halsey. You have served me well." He then made a movement with his head, as if beckoning someone else—

_Of course._

She turned around just in time to see a stealth Elite closing in behind her. She dodged the blow from his plasma blade and drew her own energy sword on her left hand, impaling his would-be assassin with an agility not even she thought had. When her aggressor was laying down cold on the floor, she turned to confront 'Mdama—his hologram, anyway.

"You will not get rid of me so easily," she said. "And for the record, if your lapdog here had succeeded in eliminating me, you would have lost any and all chances of possessing the secrets this artifact holds."

She fused the Key together for a couple of seconds, allowing Jul to see what he'd so wanted to see. Then, she separated it and beckoned Guko to her side, handing him both halves of the Key. He looked terrified, as if he believed himself to be unworthy to see this Sacred Icon, let alone touch it. But Halsey reassured him with a nod, and he took the artifact with shaking hands. However, when he tried to link the pieces together, nothing happened. He tried doing it again a couple more times without success.

"What have you done to the Librarian's Gift?!" 'Mdama roared, his eyes spitting out fire and brimstone.

"It's not what I did," Halsey said, her tone calm but confident. "It's what the Librarian did. She gave _me_ the Key, and I believe she ensured _I_ would be the only one to unlock its secrets. If you were here, I would gladly give it you, but I doubt the result would have been any different than what you just saw."

She could see Jul was just about to explode. He was clenching his mandibles so tightly Halsey thought his teeth would just crack and fall apart. He waited several moments, allowing her last statement to sink in. "You still _need_ me, Jul 'Mdama," she finally said. "There's no getting around that anytime soon."

She took the Key from Guko's hands and started to walk away from the hologram; then, she turned and stared at Jul's eyes one more time. "And if I ever find out again you've been using spies on me," she said, "I will make sure you never get to see the Key again. Is that clear?" She didn't even wait for him to answer; she just left the bridge and returned to her lab.

She had won this battle. A small victory which had gained her more time. She intended to use this time the best way possible, before her luck ran out.

_We make our own luck,_ John had told her once. She clang on to those words with all her might.

She closed the door of her lab and made sure it would remain locked up tightly until she decided to go out again. She still had both pieces of the Janus Key in her hands. She put them together once more, freeing the holograms encased within it. One of them stood out from among the rest. Halsey had already seen it since the first time the Key had been activated before her. It was the shape of a human being, a female, curled up in a fetal position, as if waiting to be reborn.

Halsey had already lost a daughter. Miranda… She was not willing to let the other die as well. She would find a way to bring her back to life by any means.

"Soon, Cortana," she said. "Soon."

* * *

**And there's Chapter 5. I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Before any of you points out my "mistake" when describing the Covenant cruiser found by the crew of the ****_Hammond_****, let me clarify. It's not a ****_CCS_****-class battlecruiser, but a ****_CRS_****-class light cruiser, just like the ones seen in Halo 4. For those who don't know, this is essentially a smaller and weaker version of the ****_CCS_****-class.**

**Thank you for your time, and don't forget to review and favorite on your way out!**


	6. Rosetta

**A/N: That's right! Chaper 6 is fresh out of the oven! I hope you all enjoy it.**

* * *

**Forerunner Installation 00, designate "The Ark"**

**Shrine of the Rings of Life**

**1100 hrs. October 9, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

Halsey descended from her Phantom holding her data pad in her hand and walked towards the shrine's entrance. Edo 'Nodam was standing by it, waiting for her to arrive.

"Talk to me," she said.

"The humans have been busy," he replied as they walked inside the structure. "They split up as soon as they got here. The leader and the short one went looking for some sort of device, while the quadruple-eyed one and his tall friend began searching for 'the address'."

"That's what he said?"

"His exact words, Shipmistress."

"Have they had any success?"

"They have. The first two couldn't find the device they were looking for, so they returned to the Rings Hall and began tampering with the one they came through. Then, just a few hours ago…"

Halsey stopped walking when Edo paused. "What?"

"It… came to life," he said.

"Really?" Dr. Jackson had explained her how the Stargates worked, and to think two universes in different eras each could be connected by a wormhole… She wouldn't have imagined it in a lifetime. And she had imagined some pretty wild stuff before. "What did they do with it once it… came to life?"

"They just talked," Edo answered. "With someone on the other side, I think. Then, the waters on the Ring of Life disappeared and they just asked to leave, saying they wanted to explore other parts of the Ark."

This troubled Halsey. Not their exploring as much as their contacting their Earth. If for some reason these people didn't trust her, they could be calling in reinforcements to secure this place for their own purposes. How many and with how much firepower, she had no way of knowing. Still, there was no way she could tell them everything. No, she had to earn their trust while keeping her cover story intact. And the best way to do so was by sharing knowledge.

She had to win over Dr. Jackson.

"What about the others?" she asked, resuming her pace.

"They ventured further inside the structure, a few levels down in fact, until they stumbled onto another room with walls covered in a foreign language. They've been there ever since."

"Foreign?"

"Some of it barely resembles Forerunner writing. The rest is unknown to me, but the one they call Daniel Jackson seems to be familiarized with it."

"Is that so?" Edo simply nodded. "Very well. Keep an eye out for the two at the Rings Hall. Notify me if they do anything out of the ordinary." She activated her holographic disguise and headed for the room where Dr. Jackson would be.

As she walked through the massive hallways, she recalled when she was working on the Forerunner artifact on Reach all those years ago. Back then, she couldn't help but to be amazed by the majesty of it. Now, she couldn't believe how used she'd grown to Forerunner tech and architecture. But she did wonder… would humanity one day be able to advance to such a wondrous level of advancement? Or even higher? _Surely not if we keep walking down the path we're on now._

Since she hadn't asked Edo for directions to the 'language room', she wandered for quite some time until she finally arrived at a cavernous square chamber, easily large enough to fit the anchor of a space elevator. The entrance was circular, roughly the same size as one of the Stargates in the Rings Hall. In fact, it was surrounded by the same symbols as the ones found on the central Stargate, the one SG-1 had come through.

The roof was several hundred meters above the ground; it was transparent, and the light coming through was shimmering, as if penetrating through water, which meant the shrine extended way beyond what she'd thought at first, maybe even below a lake. The chamber walls were engraved with four different languages, one for each wall. Each letter or symbol was about the size of a ten-year old child.

Dr. Jackson was looking up to the wall right in front of the entrance, using some sort of camcorder to record the symbols in the room. His Jaffa—as he had called him—companion was standing beside him, his gaze fixed on the chamber entrance, while four of her Elites were keeping guard one at each corner of the room. As she approached Jackson, he turned around, apparently having heard her footsteps. The echoing here was quite perceptible. "Doctor Halsey," he acknowledged her.

"Well, Doctor Jackson. It would seem like you found what you were looking for."

"Yes!" he replied, unable to conceal his excitement. "This-this is amazing! The language of each of the Four Great Races is all written in these walls. Here," he said, pointing to the wall in front of them. "This is our mystery language. That one," he pointed to the wall on his right, "is Asgard. That," he motioned to the wall on his left, "is Nox, I think. And that," he concluded, turning to point his finger towards the wall behind him, "that writing is Ancient. The text in the last three languages is the same, so maybe I can translate this one by comparison. This whole place is like a titanic alien version of the Rosetta Stone!"

"I'm sorry, the what?" Halsey asked.

"The Rosetta Stone. A stone discovered in the late 18th century which allowed archaeologists to decipher and understand the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs."

"I believe you're talking about the Memphis Stone," Halsey said.

Jackson seemed confused at first; then, his expression changed, as if realizing something. "Of course. It stands to reason that some things in this reality are named differently that in ours. Your Rosetta Stone is named after the city where the decree inscribed in it was first issued."

"That is correct," Halsey said. She looked around for a few moments, taking in the astonishing sight of this room. Then she spoke again. "You knew you would find something like this, Doctor. How?"

"Oh, I didn't know," he said, smiling, "but I had a hunch. I mean, the Ancients wouldn't record a Gate address and an alien text alongside it without knowing there would be a way of translating it on the other side for those who found it. Still, I never imagined I would find something of this magnitude!"

Halsey watched Dr. Jackson's face and couldn't help but smile. He was like a child on Christmas Day, exceedingly excited about his new toys. He kind of reminded her of herself at a younger age, when she believed she could do anything. And to be honest, right now she was growing the same level of excitement as him. They would get along just perfectly.

She stared at the Jaffa for a couple of seconds. "Is your friend always so eloquent?" she asked Jackson.

"Teal'c? Oh, yeah. Though at times, he is even more expressive."

The Jaffa raised an eyebrow but didn't seem offended by this statement. It was as if he was used to this kind of sarcasm. Halsey eventually diverted her gaze back to the wall in front of them and began to understand why Edo hadn't been able to ascertain what language was this. If she had to guess, she'd say it was a derivative of the Forerunner language found in artifacts and structures all over the galaxy, composed of both glyphs and a more conventional writing system.

"So, what does it say?"

"It's the Mantle," Jackson said. "I think this place was built as a temple in its honor. It describes in four different languages what the Mantle is, its mandates and instructions, rules and guidelines—i-it's incredible!"

"Indeed," Teal'c said in a stoic voice. It was the first time she'd heard him speak.

Dr. Jackson kept turning his head back and forth between this wall and the one behind them, muttering a few words in a language similar to Latin and translating them into English. She could hear a few words like _transcendatia_ and _magnus iterinum_. He translated the former as "transcendence" but was still having trouble with the latter. Halsey's eyes suddenly became transfixed on two of the glyphs on the wall. She recognized them.

"'_Magnus iterinum_'," Jackson repeated. "'High path' … 'big road' … 'Long travel'…"

"'Great Journey'," Halsey said.

Dr. Jackson shot her a double-take. "Yes. Yes, that's it! How did you know?"

"That was the name of a popular belief among the Covenant. According to their religion, the Forerunners discovered a way to transcend the physical world and become divine beings, by building and activating the seven Halos, or "Sacred Rings" as the Covenant called them. When this happened, the Halos uplifted the Forerunners into trans-sentience. The ultimate goal of the Covenant was to locate and activate the Halo Installations, believing that in doing so, all faithful adherents to the Covenant Religion would be uplifted as the Forerunners were and become divine beings."

"Interesting," Jackson said.

"Yeah. The Covenant almost wiped out everyone in this galaxy because of it."

"Well, maybe they were wrong about the rings, but I don't think they were too far out on the Forerunners transcendence."

This surprised Halsey. What could he possibly know about this? "What do you mean?"

"Well, this 'Great Journey' sounds a lot like Ascension."

"Ascension?" Halsey repeated.

"Yes. You see, in my reality, the Ancients evolved to a point where they were able to shed their physical bodies and rise to a higher plain of existence, one in which they live as pure energy. With this came a much greater understanding of the universe and all its knowledge. From what you told me about how advanced the Forerunners were, I wouldn't be surprised if they also learned how to ascend."

Halsey was lost for words with this revelation. It was entirely possible, then, that the Forerunners actually became 'gods', for lack of a better word? "How do you even know this?" she asked.

"Uh, part of it comes from several texts and records we've found scattered throughout the galaxy, but I have to admit most of it we learned when we met a few Ascended beings. One of them actually helped me ascend, twice."

"What?" This man had already been to a higher plain of existence? Was such a thing even possible?

"Yep. Can't tell you much about it, though. The others wiped my memories from my time with them when the descended me."

"Why did they do that?" Halsey asked. She had to admit she'd never been so curious about something.

"My friends were in trouble and I couldn't stand sitting on my hands and doing nothing," Jackson said. "I helped them, and by doing so, I broke one of the Ascended most sacred rules: never to interfere with the lowest plains."

"They don't interact with the rest of us?"

"Aside from the Ori, no, most of them don't. There's only been a handful of Ascended Ancients who've actually broken the same rule, and they've all suffered the consequences."

"The Ori…" Halsey tried to remember what Daniel had mentioned about them the day before. "I don't recall you saying the Ori were Ascended."

"I didn't, did I?" he replied with a smirk on his face, not one of deviousness but of amusement, as if he had forgotten to include such a delicate thing in his review.

"No, you just said they were a bunch of religious nuts just like the Covenant, with the only difference being in their wanting to convert everyone to their religion instead of completely exterminate them."

"That's true. The thing is, the Ori were other Ascended beings who instructed those beneath them to worship them, for in doing so they received power from those who willfully gave up their free will to them."

That final statement scared the hell out of Halsey. Why had the Covenant worshipped the Forerunners as gods at all? Had it been because of superstition, out of fear and awe for everything they left behind? Or had the Forerunners actually _forced_ the Covenant to worship them? Or worse, to destroy humanity? From the UNSC's experience with the Didact and a few Forerunner records ONI had found—and which Major Sullivan had shared with her—the Forerunners had, in fact, fought against ancient humans for many years. What if, out of contempt, some Ascended Forerunners had ordered the Covenant to leave no trace of human presence in this galaxy?

And still, the prospect of having the chance to meet them… to be _like_ them… If Jackson was telling the truth, if there was the slightest possibility that an ordinary human like her could achieve such a level of evolution… After everything she'd been through, she still desperately wanted to know _everything_. All the secrets of the universe.

And it could provide her with an escape.

Now it was Halsey who couldn't contain a smile. She had come here to try and get Dr. Jackson to trust her by sharing knowledge with him. Instead, she had been the one to get more knowledge than what she would've ever hoped for.

"Do you understand these symbols, Dr. Halsey?" Jackson asked.

"The language is somewhat different than what I've previously seen," she replied, "but I do understand some of it. Do you require assistance?"

"I'd appreciate it, Dr. Halsey," he said.

"Catherine," she said. She couldn't understand why she felt compelled to say this. "Call me Catherine."

"Catherine…" Jackson replied. "Your name reminds me of someone…" He appeared lost in his thoughts for a few moments before he spoke again. "Daniel. Call me Daniel."

* * *

**In orbit above the Ark**

**UNSC _Infinity_**

**1500 hrs. October 9, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

"We're halfway to the MIA status," Roland said, a somber tone in his voice.

By now, Lasky was well beyond concerned about Sully, Sarah, and Fireteam Hammer. The latter were new to the SPARTAN Program, and even with the level of training they received, they were still inexperienced in the field. He didn't even know if Sully had taken any weapon at all. Palmer was a pro, but not even she was invincible. No one could yet tell if there were still Covenant troops somewhere down there. And Roland was still trying to figure out what was going on in that location.

At this point, there was nothing else he could do.

"I'm not giving up hope on them just yet," he said. "Found anything?"

"Ship's sensors have detected the same energy signature two more times," Roland said. "One about 14 hours ago, and the other one about nine hours ago. I've been looking into it, and as far as I can tell, it's definitely not radioactive or lethal. I think."

"Make up your mind, Roland. 'Definitely' or 'you think'?"

"Definitely, Captain."

"So, it is safe to send a search and rescue party down there?"

"I still wouldn't do that. There's something else going on there."

"Roland!"

"I'm doing my best, Captain! This is like nothing I've ever seen. I myself am having a hard time trying to understand this, and keep in mind AIs perceive time in a much different way than you humans!"

This was the first time Lasky had seen Roland snapping like this. Someone else would have immediately reprimanded him, reminding him of his origin and purpose. But after meeting Cortana, he had learned that AIs were just as human as the next guy in this ship. They could develop feelings. He knew he was being tough with him, and not even his concerns justified this.

"I'm sorry, Roland," Lasky said.

"No, please forgive me, Captain," the AI replied. He did look ashamed of losing it the way he just had. The avatar sighed. "Look, Captain Lasky, to the best of my knowledge, each time this energy signature appears, there's also a subspace disturbance in the area."

"You mean Slipspace," Lasky said.

"No, Captain. I used the term 'subspace' on purpose. This disturbance is occurring in a different region of subspace than the one we know. I'm not even sure how it is that the ships sensors are picking it up at all."

"Do you have any theories?"

"Maybe one. The first two times, the disturbance carried some sort of energy pattern, which reminded me on one of the oldest existing theories on intergalactic travel." The holotable suddenly became alive as Roland projected two spheres, one on each side of the table. "So, let's assume these are two points in space, separated by a distance of several light years. Travelling between them, even through Slipspace, would take a very long time. Unless you do this…" Then, Roland linked both spheres with a tunnel. "This is called a wormhole, and it has been said for centuries that it would allow for almost instantaneous interstellar trips."

"And you think this is what we've been picking up?" Lasky asked.

"It's possible. And you know what this could mean."

Lasky did but wouldn't admit it. Not yet. And now that he knew what they might be facing, he was not willing to wait anymore. "I'm sending them down there."

"Captain…"

"My people is still down there, and no matter what the odds or the dangers, I'm willing to take my chances trying to bring them back home." He paused, looked away from the holotable, and pulled from underneath his uniform a small piece of blue, polished metal. He held it firmly in his hand; it reminded him of his escape from Corbulo… of who had helped him escape. Of what he'd taught him that day without saying a single word to him. "And there's no one else I would count on for such a mission."

He returned to the table and pressed the comms button, opening a secure channel to a room elsewhere in the ship. "Chief, I've got a mission for you and your team."

* * *

**Temple of the Mantle**

**The Ark**

**0623 hrs. August 5, 2013**

Any doubts Daniel had had about Catherine Halsey had virtually dissipated at this point.

As soon as the Sangheili had dropped them off at the structure housing the Stargate, McKay had immediately begun searching for the DHD without further explanation. Mitchell had thought it would be wise to move in pairs while exploring the place, and so he went with McKay while Teal'c had remained with Daniel. Of course, it was up to him to find the nine-chevron address needed to dial back to Atlantis, and when he didn't find it in the Gate room, he began walking farther away from the Gate room, Teal'c by his side at all times.

Later, Mitchell had contacted them by radio, saying they hadn't found squat and that they were going back to the Gate to try and dial manually since, according to McKay, this 'world' easily had to have more than enough power to dial back to their galaxy. He didn't explicitly say it, but Daniel knew Mitchell was subtly telling him to move it faster. Just a few minutes after that, he found the chamber, its entrance being a virtually perfect depiction of the Stargate. The symbols embedded on each of its chevrons formed the address he was looking for.

By then, no one had said a word about their experience aboard Halsey's ship, focusing instead on the task at hand. But when McKay had succeeded in dialing the address Daniel had found and he had been able to contact Atlantis, after giving his report on where they were and their current situation—which surely had given Jack one hell of a headache—, Mitchell had told O'Neill exactly what he'd said back on the ship's brig about Halsey reminding him of Linea. Needless to say, those words had immediately made Jack wary, and he had told Mitchell to keep an eye out on her and her 'minions'. Daniel had wanted to defend her, but he himself still didn't know if she could be trusted entirely.

Now, after working with her side by side for the last few hours, he believed in her.

He wanted to think he had become a good judge of character after so many years at the SGC. There was no way Halsey could be a murderer like Linea. If anything, she looked desperate, afraid. And even then, when she'd heard about this place, her eyes had shone with curiosity, leaving aside all concerns and fears, yearning for knowledge. She reminded him of his dearest friend Catherine Langford, the one who had brought him into the Stargate Program almost two decades ago. Daniel was certain Halsey was just the way Catherine might have been in her youth.

He heard footsteps outside of the room. Rushing footsteps. A few seconds later, he saw Edo and a few other Sangheili in a hurry.

"Shipmistress!" Edo yelled in English. "We saw four demons heading this way!"

Daniel wasn't sure if he'd heard correctly. "What did he just say?" he asked Halsey.

She didn't answer him, instead addressing Edo. "Where?"

"Outside of the shrine, coming out of the tree line."

"How were they like?"

"Big, Shipmistress," Edo said. "_Really_ big."

The look of Halsey's face was one of concern. "Where are our other guests?"

"Their Phantom was on their way back. We've contacted them and told them to fall back to the ship."

Upon hearing this, Daniel pressed the button on his radio. "Mitchell, McKay, come in."

_"Daniel, what's going on? These guys are saying it isn't safe to go back to the Gate."_

"I'm not sure," he replied. "Gimme just a minute." Halsey had already sprinted towards the entrance to the chamber, and now she was searching for something in the threshold. Daniel ran to her. "Catherine, what's happening?"

"Spartans," was her answer.

"Spartans?" Daniel repeated.

"The UNSC's supersoldiers and elite military units. They must be searching for me."

The entrance became sealed by a set of sliding doors that weren't there when Daniel had arrived, and Daniel knew she was trying to lock themselves in. "You know there's no way out of this place other than that, don't you?"

"Yes, but I can't risk myself or my Elites being caught."

"And if they have a way of knowing we're in here?"

"Then we'll have to fight," she said in a determinate yet dreadful voice. "But I _truly_ hope it doesn't come to that."

He didn't know why, but Daniel felt like there was something else going on here. "Catherine, is there's something you're not telling me?"

She hesitated for a moment. "I created them."

"The Spartans?"

"Yes. They… they had a special training since they were young. You could say I raised them. They used to see me as a mother. And now the UNSC has turned them against me." Daniel could sense sadness in her voice when saying this. "I was hoping I'd get a chance to talk to them and convince them to join our cause," she continued, "but not like this. Not by putting you and my Elites in the line."

Silence settled upon the chamber in a creepy way. One could hear a needle drop. As time passed, however, Daniel began hearing more footsteps outside, rhythmic, steady footsteps. "What will happen if they find us anyways?" he asked.

"Honestly, I don't know," Halsey said. She looked to the floor as if searching for a solution that wasn't there. "Do you believe in miracles, Daniel?"

He was about to reply when his radio crackled. But it wasn't Mitchell or McKay.

_"SG-1, this is _Hammond_. Do you read?"_ That was Sam's voice. Daniel was so stunned by this, his mind so confused, he couldn't even respond. How had _she_ been able to cross between realities and time?

_"SG-1, this is _Hammond_. Please, respond."_ It was Sam, alright. How, he didn't know. He could only smile.

"What were you saying about miracles, Catherine?" he said. She tilted her head to one side while he removed his earpiece and pressed the button on his radio, leaving it on the lowest volume level possible to allow Halsey to listen in. "_Hammond_, this is Daniel," he whispered. "Sam, don't get me wrong because you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice, but… what are you doing here?"

_"It is good to hear you too, Daniel. We were en route to the Andromeda galaxy when our sensors picked up an object in the void beyond it, so we decided to come check it out. When we got here, we picked up your locator beacons' signals."_

_"Oh, Sam! I love your timing!"_ That was Mitchell's voice.

_"Likewise, Cam. Anyone care to tell me what is this place, exactly?"_

"Sam, I'd love to elaborate," Daniel stepped in, "but we're in a bit of an emergency right now and could use some assistance. Are you picking up other life signs near my position?"

_"Yes, I've got several virtually on top of you and Teal'c, and a couple more bearing down on your position."_

"Listen, the life signs on top of us are friends. Can you beam us all up to the _Hammond_?"

_"Daniel, are you certain?"_

"Yes, and we're kinda in a hurry."

_"OK, just gimme a sec."_

"Catherine," Daniel said, smiling, "ready to get out of here?"

"What?" she asked just before the bright light Daniel knew to be the Asgard transporter engulfed them. When it faded, he found himself in the _Hammond_'s bridge, Sam sitting right in front of him. She jumped in her seat at first when she saw the Sangheili but seemed to settle down pretty soon.

"Daniel? Care to introduce your new friends?"

"In a moment, Sam. You got Mitchell's and McKay's signals?"

"Yeah, why? Are they also in danger?"

"Not at the moment, but I bet they'd be more than happy to see you. Especially McKay."

"I bet," she said while nodding to the weapons officer to her right. A few moments later, the rest of SG-1 was onboard the ship.

"Sam! It's good to see you again," Mitchell said.

"You too, Cam," she replied, standing up to embrace him, then Daniel, then Teal'c. Then, she nodded to McKay who was already with his arms half-extended. "Rodney."

"Sam," he replied, lowering his arms. He was obviously disappointed by this rather plain greeting. "I thought you were in Pegasus."

"We were, but something came up. The _Daedalus_ had to return to Earth with the ZPMs. Sheppard and his team went with them."

Rodney just made a "huh" sound. Daniel turned to Halsey and the Sangheili who were crouching to avoid hitting their heads with the bridge's roof. All of them were looking at each other in disbelief. He beckoned Halsey closer. "Catherine, this is my friend and former teammate, Dr. Samantha Carter. Sam, this is Dr. Catherine Halsey."

Halsey, with a look of surprise still on her face, shook Sam's hand. "Nice to meet you."

"You too, I guess," Sam said. "Now, Daniel…?"

"I-it's a long story," he said, looking outside the bridge's viewport. From here, the view of the Ark was breathtaking. Then, he saw what he thought to be one of the biggest ships he'd ever seen.

"That's one big ship," Mitchell said, taking the words right out of Daniel's mouth.

"We picked it up just before exiting hyperspace and engaged the cloak the moment we came out of it, just in case."

"They can't see us?" Halsey inquired.

"No, they can't, Doctor."

It appeared to Daniel as if Halsey's amazement escalated the more she was on this ship. "Sam, how about you lend me your Asgard computer core and Dr. Halsey and I tell you everything you want to know on our way there?"

"Why would you need the core for?" Sam replied.

"Let's just say it might make our translating job easier."

"Translating?" Daniel must've made some sort of puppy face because Sam just sighed and began walking out of the bridge, motioning for them to follow her. "What are you gonna translate?"

"You'll see."

* * *

**In orbit above the Ark**

**UNSC _Infinity_**

**1341 hrs. October 9, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

The sensors on the _Infinity_ were going nuts, but only Roland was fully aware of this. Something big was going on.

"Captain, sensors are detecting something in…" He paused to analyze and process the massive amounts of data, but it was awfully confusing even for him. After a long while he reached a conclusion. "…subspace," he finished his sentence. In spite of all the time he had taken to try and understand what was happening, for Lasky surely not more than one second had passed since he had paused.

"Again not Slipspace?" the captain asked.

"No, sir. But this is also different from the subspace disturbance we've been picking up in the last 36 hours."

Suddenly, the sensors went from absolutely haywire to completely stable as they detected an object emerging into normal space. Less than a second later, it disappeared. For a moment, Roland felt frustrated by all these strange anomalies and his inability to comprehend them, but then he began going over the sensor data and found his very first clue.

The object was artificial in nature, albeit like nothing he'd ever seen or heard of.

Maybe they were dealing with a new race, one which had mastered another level of technology previously unknown to the UNSC. A race capable of who knew how much.

"How is it different?" Captain Lasky asked. Once again, what had been a couple of seconds for him had been several minutes of analyzing and theorizing for Roland. And even then, he could remember perfectly where he had left the conversation and from where to continue.

"I think it's being caused by a ship."

"Covenant?"

"Captain, I don't think we've ever found _anything_ like this. They must've mastered faster-than-light travel through another dimension of subspace, and maybe they're also responsible for the anomalies we've been seeing so far. By the way, they disappeared as soon as it came out of subspace."

"What do you mean by 'it disappeared'?"

"Vanished from our sight and sensors. It's possible they have a way of concealing themselves. I'll try to find a way to locate it."

"Alright, keep me posted."

"Aye, Captain," Roland said just before he received an incoming transmission. "And, Captain, I have Blue Team for you."

Captain Lasky, who had already waked towards the viewport, rushed back to the holotable. "Chief, what've you got?"

_"I'm sorry, Captain Lasky,"_ was the response from Sierra-117. _"The place is empty."_

The captain lowered his face in disappointment. "Roger that, Chief. Could you search in the nearby area?"

_"Yes, sir."_

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

No more words were pronounced. Captain Lasky walked away from the table while Roland tried to find a way to locate the mystery ship. Not seven minutes later, the sensors picked up yet another anomaly; this time, though, it was not subspace-related. It was an intermittent energy signature somewhere in the middle of space, just above the Ark. Could it be possible the mysterious ship was the source of this anomaly? If so, all Roland would have to do would be to tune _Infinity_'s sensors in order to pinpoint its exact location.

He was close to finding some answers.

* * *

**In orbit above the Ark**

**_USS George Hammond_**

**1700 hrs. October 9, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

Halsey's awe was going from big to massive. First, the Mantle's Chamber, then, being teleported aboard a ship in the blink of an eye. And that had been just the beginning.

Colonel Carter had taken her and Daniel to a room with a piece of technology that didn't match with the rest of the ship. They called it the Asgard computer core. Once there, Daniel had begun working on transferring the images from his camcorder into this core to allow for a faster correlation between the symbols and the other three languages, all the while telling Carter about his experiences here so far. From what she could tell, Daniel had come to trust her completely, and he'd made sure Carter did too.

When Daniel later told them the correlation process would take some time, the Colonel had given her the full tour throughout the ship. It was quite impressive considering its size. Among other things, Colonel Carter had shown her the Engineering room, where she had explained her how the 'hyperdrive' worked. Halsey found it quite intriguing that this ship didn't travel through Slipspace, and when she had explained Carter what it was, she had found it very interesting.

They spent a long time theorizing on how and why this ship had been able to cross between realities apparently without the aid of any additional technology. Neither one of them had been able to reach a logic explanation, which surprised her since—according to Daniel—Colonel Carter was the foremost expert in astrophysics back on their Earth.

After that long chat, they had gotten along nicely. And for the first time in many years, Halsey felt like she belonged. People being nice with her, not treating her like scum and vermin; friends with whom to share knowledge. She was finding herself being tempted to just abandon everything else and leave this galaxy–this reality–to go with them. But she had a mission, and she intended to carry it out.

Still, she had expressed her feelings to Carter, told her how disappointed she was of the UNSC and the way they had been doing things. Sure, there were some nice people in it, but most were just too corrupt, and the rest acted like a bunch of sycophants, doing the bidding of the supreme authorities. Then, Carter had surprised her with her words.

"I have been to no less than two hundred worlds," she had said, "and I haven't found one which is free from such an ailment. Not even our Earth is free from such ailment. But the people in each of those planets are still humans, and we have a responsibility to them. We can't just let them destroy each other or get rid of those we think are corrupt. We have to do what we can to ensure they _all_ live in peace among them, or eventually they will bring themselves to their own demises if they insist on being the way they are."

Halsey had laughed when listening to this, not because it was wrong or out of disrespect; it had been out of disbelief in the outstanding contrasts between the humans in her reality and the humans in these people's universe. "I think you'd make better Reclaimers than all of us humans in this galaxy together," she'd told Carter.

Every now and then, as she walked through the ship's corridors, she'd find one of her Elites wandering around. She'd instructed them to behave as nicely as they could, which—she knew—was like asking the Didact to shake hands with Lord Hood. But so far, the Sangheili had complied, and she'd heard of no problems during her time there.

Now, she was walking back towards the Core room to check up on Daniel. When she arrived, she found the rest of SG-1 standing around him, staring either at him, the Asgard screen, or the floor. "How is it coming, Daniel?" she asked.

"Great, actually," he said. "I've already finished correlating the symbols. Now I'm trying to translate the text I brought with me—the one we found back in our reality—based on this new cypher."

Halsey had seen Daniel taking out some sort of data crystal before that seemed to fit perfectly into a tray in the core, one filled with similar crystals. It must've contained what Daniel had just mentioned. Colonel Carter arrived at that precise moment, apparently having heard both Halsey's question and the answer. "Anything interesting yet?" she inquired.

"Uh, maybe…" Daniel seemed to get lost in his thoughts.

Halsey turned towards Carter. There was something that was bugging her. "Excuse me, Colonel Carter. May I ask you something?"

"Please, call me Sam."

Halsey smirked at this. It was the second time in a day someone had asked her to call them by their first name. "Alright, Sam. I couldn't help but notice you have no AI on board this ship to assist you with its operations. Have you not developed the technology required to create them?"

'Sam' shrugged at this. "No, not really."

"May I ask why?"

"I guess we've just had some bad experiences in the past with artificial intelligences to feel motivated to create our own."

Halsey tilted her head. "What kind of bad experiences?"

"Well, one of them kidnapped us and made robot copies of us just to void being alone. Another became implanted in our brains, and we had a hard time trying to take him back to his home planet. And of course, there's the Replicators."

"I'm sorry… Replicators?"

"Yeah. They were—"

"Kind of like the parasite you told us about, Doc," Mitchell stepped in, "but in a mechanical version."

"An artificial version of the Flood?" Halsey asked.

"Sort of, I guess. Nasty little buggers. And their human-form version was even worse. Imagine trying to take out a machine composed of nanites which allows it to regenerate as many times as it wants."

Halsey wanted to ask Carter more about this, but when she turned to see her, her expression had drastically changed. Mitchell must have noticed it too. "Sam, are you okay?" he asked.

"I-I just—Did you say parasite?"

"Uh, yes," he said. "Why?"

"Cam, remember what happened to the Wr—?"

"It's a journal," Daniel thought out loud, interrupting Sam in midsentence.

For a moment, no one said another word. "What?" McKay finally said.

"Yes, i-i-i-it's a narrative on these people's 'Great Journey'. Here, listen to this."

Everyone edged closer as Daniel began reading out loud what he'd translated so far.

_Who am I? A more apt question would be, who I once was?_

_When I was young, I was forced to become a soldier, shaped in the image of the greatest warrior ever known to this galaxy. I was given a burden that was not mine and a position that I never sought. Now, among my people, I have been appointed as the one who will lead them in the journey ahead of us._

_In bygone days, we were a great and powerful race, the mightiest beings in our entire galaxy. We believed ourselves to be the rightful guardians of life and took upon ourselves the responsibility of looking over all that existed. We called ourselves Forerunners._

_No more._

_We failed to understand that it was not our destiny to take on such a responsibility. Our actions as a race led to a series of events which culminated in the utter destruction and extinction of all sentient beings in the galaxy. And for this, we were directly responsible._

_But as a final act of redemption, we also ensured that the same life we took away would be reseeded and reborn. Yet in order for this to be possible, it has to be without us present here._

_And so, as we leave this galaxy we once called home, we know that life will evolve and thrive once more… And one day, the true inheritors of the Mantle will finally take the place that was rightfully theirs and fulfill their destiny as guardians and protectors._

_Our final Great Journey has begun. Our quest for redemption and true transcendence has started. We are no longer Forerunners. Henceforth, and until the end of our days, we shall be known by our real name._

_I am known as the IsoDidact. And we are the Furlings._

* * *

**A/N: And that was Chapter 6.**

**By now, as some of you may have already noticed, we've reached a turning point in the story. The next three chapters (that's right, _three_) will dig deeper into this final revelation, but don't worry, I'll try to make them as interesting and compelling as the story has been so far. And since it obviously involves some Forerunner history, I'm once again stressing the following: _If you haven't read the Forerunner Saga, now is the time to do so._ I will also do my best to update wekly because I too want to go back to the present-day plotline ASAP.**

**And yes, both the Chief and Cortana will make a comeback in future chapters, so stay tuned.**

**Don't forget to review on your way out!**


	7. Echoes from the Past (Part 1)

**A/N: No, I'm not dead yet, nor is this fic. I just had a terrible time trying to get this one to work properly, but I'm sure you will be pleased with the result.  
**

**Just one final warning: If you haven't read the Forerunner saga, CLICK ON THE 'BACK' BUTTON OF YOUR BROWSER AND GO GET IT! I'm dead serious here! (I swear this is the last time I make this warning)**

**I know it's been a long wait, so let's cut to the chase and begin Chapter 7!**

* * *

**_Seven years after the Halo Event_**

_It is time._

_Our new ship, the vessel which will take us to places unknown, is ready to depart. It took almost a year to finish, but it was a well-spent time which yielded quite a proficient result._

_I must admit I am impressed by this. The Builders that survived outdid themselves in creating this transport in such a short amount of time. _Audacity_, the ship my wife used to travel to Path Kethona so many years ago and which she kept up until her final days, took ten years to build, and it was smaller than the one I observe right now._

_My wife._

_Even though _we_ were never married, she and my original were. And for all intents and purposes, I became him. I was hers. And she was mine. For a time…_

_But I am also _not_ the real Didact. I was__—__I am__—__Bornstellar. And now, with the Flood gone and the galaxy at peace, being reborn, I intend to begin anew. I shall live _my_ life. I will have my _own_ family, my own wife and children. I know she would have wanted me to do so._

_Chant-to-Green__—__the new Lifeshaper__—__and I have become close to each other. The Librarian's heir. It would seem no matter how much I try, my steps are walking down the same path as the one who imprinted me. Perhaps it's a subconscious attempt to amend, to right the wrongs he made. And yet, this is something _I_ want. It's my desire._

_The ship is large enough for all of us, but not luxurious or elegant in design at all. Within it, several stasis pods have been built with the purpose of providing a long, dreamless sleep during the long travel between galaxies. It carries a small number of exploration vessels, designed to carry some of us into any planet we encounter. It has no weapons, instead relying on its shielding systems to withstand any kind of attack long enough for it to withdraw into slipspace from any trouble we might find. _

_Faber, the Master Builder, was a clever Forerunner indeed. Had it not been for his trickery, our race would have surely perished, even though we deserved such a destiny._

_Shortly after the reseeding, we found a few dozens of our people, Builders mostly, placed in stasis deep inside the bowels of the Ark. Faber must have brokered an agreement with the Librarian to allow him to safeguard them–or maybe she didn't even know about this. It doesn't matter anymore. We all know we're long past our differences, our rates… our pride._

_We are all one race._

_A race in decline._

_The ship carries as much of our knowledge and history as we could gather, now that the Domain is gone. We have named it _'Quest'_. A simple name which reflects its purpose__—__and ours. To seek and find enlightenment, peace… redemption. Hope. If such a thing is even possible for us who have cause more death and suffering than any other race ever to inhabit the stars._

_The last of our people have been placed in stasis inside the ship, their armors stored in a special compartment beside each pod. I shed my armor, and after verifying the path our ship will take with its ancilla, I enter my own stasis pod and allow myself to be placed in slumber while _Quest_ starts to rise above the Ark and leave everything we've known behind… forever. _

* * *

**_100 years after the Halo Event_**

_The ship's ancilla has awakened me. After dozens of large jumps in Slipspace to allow for adequate reconciliation, we have reached an inhabited world in another galaxy._

_A long time ago, such a feat would have brought pride to all Forerunners__—__especially Builders._

_I leave my stasis pod, summon my armor, and head towards the command center. Chant-to-Green is already there, staring into the planet's surface beneath us. "There is life here," she says. "In every planet in this galaxy, as a matter of fact. We should not be here. Our presence here could be damaging."_

_"It would," I say, drawing closer to her, "if we were here to interfere. But we are here only to learn."_

_I take her hand in mine, and she wraps her fingers around it in response. No words have been necessary, even before leaving the Ark. Her eyes, her touch, they express what words cannot. We stand in the command center this way for some time before she orders the ship's ancilla to awaken some other Lifeworkers. I already know what she plans to do._

_Inside an hour, the Lifeshaper, three of her aides, and I are descending into the planet's atmosphere in one of the seekers we brought with us. _Quest_ is relaying us information even as we reach the surface. "There is presence of oxygen, carbon and water. No considerable energy sources detected. It is highly likely the inhabitants of this world are at Tier 7."_

_The data collected gives us enough confidence to step out of our craft when it comes to rest in the outskirts of the nearest settlement. Somehow, the layout and architecture seems familiar. But nothing prepares us for the greatest shock of all. We have not walked yet into the village when we sight something we never believed we would see again._

_A human._

_My feet are rooted to the ground, my body frozen in place by this startling discovery. The Lifeshaper and her aides seem affected in the same way as I. For some time, we know not what to do, whether to walk into this village or to head back to our ship and leave this planet. Some of the humans have already seen us from afar and ran back to the village, and now others are walking towards us, a mixture of fear and wonder in their faces._

_When they reach our position, the one who looks like the leader edges forward and addresses us in a language none of us have heard before. _Quest_ is listening through our armor and is accessing each and all of the records we could salvage from the Ark, desperately trying to find any record that matches or at least resembles something like this language. Meanwhile, the human is still attempting to establish communication with us. He keeps looking at our armor, apparently intrigued by it._

_Finally, I begin listening to a translation through my helmet. "Have you come to harm us?"_

_"We mean you no harm," I respond honestly. "We have come in peace."_

_"Have you come to trade?" the leader asks, seemingly relieved to know that we do speak and our intentions._

_The Lifeshaper and I trade looks. "We… we've just come to explore your world," she says._

_The leader diverts his gaze from us and stares at our ship. "You're not Lanteans, yet you came here in a flying machine just like them. Surely you have come from far away, haven't you?"_

_Lanteans… Is it possible this human is talking about a Tier 2 or Tier 1 civilization in this galaxy?_

_"Don't worry," he says with a smile on his face. I think he is trying to be friendly. "You must be tired and hungry from your journey. Come!" He starts walking back to the village, followed by the other humans who came with him. We trail behind._

_Never in my life did I imagine I would be invited by a _human_ to rest and eat among them. It wouldn't be the first time, though; I still have the fresh memory in my mind of the celebration Riser and the other humans held at the Ark before being taken back to Erde-Tyrene. These people don't look menacing or dangerous, but just as a precaution I tell one of the Lifeworkers to remain on the ship and to have it ready in case we need to leave in a hurry. _

* * *

**_100 years after the Halo Event_**

**_One day after first contact_**

_I was right. These people are not at all threatening. They do have some of the same ways and traditions as the humans in our galaxy, but they are most certainly not a warring people. If anything, they seem to live in perfect peace. They have no problem with eating the flesh of other living things, though. Our vegetarian diet has left them somewhat confused, but they have been careful not to question it. Not because they fear we might take some action against them, but out of general respect._

_They invited us to rest in one of their dwellings, but we explained to them that our armor replaces our need for sleep__—__to which they have responded with an expression of surprise which still can't compare to our surprise. I'm still wondering how it can be that humans have also evolved in another galaxy, and with such a close resemblance with those we left in ours._

_Today, the movement in the village is increasing, I think in preparation for some important event. Iras, the village elder, has invited us to welcome some traders. He said it's some distance from here, so we offered to take them in our ship. He politely declined, and we decided to respect them by following them on foot._

_Thus, we're now walking behind the procession, hoping not to scare the traders. After some time, we reach a large, beautiful valley. And once again, the Lifeworkers and I find ourselves shocked, even more than when we first arrived here._

_On the other side of the valley, standing in plain sight, is a Ring of Life._

_For millennia, Forerunners revered, even worshiped, these rings, believing they were the Precursors' tool to seed life in our galaxy, until we discovered they were not Precursor artifacts at all__—__just after the first firing test of the Halo. Up to this moment, no one has been able to discover who is behind the creation of these mysterious rings. Maybe until now. This Ring looks slightly different than the ones we have found in our galaxy, though__—__slightly bigger, with different symbols._

_The small caravan in front of us doesn't seem to fear nor revere it, which could mean they know exactly what it is and what its purpose is. But before I can ask any of the humans before me, the Ring begins lighting up. And in spite of our best efforts to remain objective, we immediately fall to the ground in reverence as the empty space inside it is filled with… water… created by the Ring itself. It creates a violent vortex before settling into a calm puddle__—__a standing puddle._

_The humans are undaunted by this. I'm still wondering why they are not afraid when, without warning, yet another caravan of humans starts to emerge from _inside_ the Ring. These, however, are different from the ones we have already met; judging from their clothes and the equipment they are using to carry their goods, they must be standing at Tier 6._

_Somehow, now I begin to understand. The sheer amount of Rings we harvested from so many worlds in our galaxy, their similarity with each other, the symbols… This object which we considered shrouded in mystery for hundreds of years is used as a means of interstellar transportation, similar to the portals that spanned our ecumene, but in a much smaller scale._

_Behind my helmet, I smile. To think such a simple device caused so much debate and discussion for decades! And even so, the greatest question remains, who built them?_

_On the way back to the village, while both processions walk ahead of us, I approach one of the villagers. "If you forgive my intromission," I say. "I would like to ask you about the… device in the valley."_

_The man looks at me as if I were some kind of alien not only to his world but to his galaxy as well__—__which I am, indeed. "You truly don't know about the Ring of the Ancestors?"_

_"Ancestors?" I repeat._

_"Yes," my interlocutor replies. "The Lanteans, the Guardians of this galaxy."_

_There's that name again. When I first heard it yesterday, I dismissed it as a possible reference to another, more advanced race. But if these Lanteans built not only these Rings but the ones we collected as well, they must have been at some point in our galaxy, which in turn means they must be a Tier 0 race, capable of intergalactic travel._

_And there is only one race capable of such a thing that we know of. _

* * *

**_100 years after the Halo Event_**

**_Four days after first contact_**

_After our discovery of the Rings three days ago, the Lifeworkers and I returned to _Quest_ and awoke everyone. Our current situation demanded a general discussion and voting on our next course of action._

_The delicacy of our problem was not lost on anyone. If these Lanteans are the Precursors we know, and if they know what has happened in our galaxy, our lives are in danger. Among our people, there are no more Warrior-Servants besides me, and our ship would not be able to withstand the wrath of our creators if they decide to bring punishment upon us._

But_ if this is a new race which we have never encountered before__—__as suggested by the fact that their Rings are _not_ built upon neural physics__—__, then we might be looking at a civilization with knowledge and technology beyond our imagination. Why should the Precursors have been the only Tier 0 race in this infinite universe?_

_It took us three days, but we've reached a decision: to meet these Lanteans. If we are to perish in the process, then so be it. It will serve as payment for our sins. But the chance that this culture may become an ally instead of an enemy is worth a risk. For if we are to survive here, we need friends._

_We still need something for this to happen: information of where to find them. To this end, Chant and I have come back to the humans' village. Perhaps one of them can lead us in the right direction._

_As soon as we arrive at the village, we start looking for the elder. Oddly enough, it is he who finds us first. He all but runs to meet us. "Where have you been? We thought you had left. We feared we had offended you in some way. Is everything alright?"_

_"Everything is fine, elder," Chant says. "Thank you for caring."_

_The elder smiles. "What can we do for you?"_

_I've been preparing my request since before exiting our ship. "Elder Iras, we have been hearing you and your people mentioning the Lanteans. We would like to meet them. Do you know of a place where we can find them?"_

_His face shows no fear at this request, which I take as a good sign. For me, it means the Lanteans are quite open to interaction with lower races. "I know the address to one of their colonies. Come, let me show you."_

_"Thank you," I reply, "but we would prefer to go there by means of our ship."_

_The elder pauses. "I'm afraid I can't help you, then. Our people have no way of knowing which stars in the night sky belong to which world. Trust me, the Ring of the Ancestors will be more effective."_

_"We trust you," Chant says. "But we don't know how the Ring works or how to use it, and if we need to come back to our own, we would have no way to return."_

_"Ah, don't worry about that," the elder says with a smile. "I can show you how to use the Ring. It's quite simple."_

_I think of replying against but choose not to. If such a thing is true…_

_Chant and I follow the elder to the Ring of the Ancestors. Once we arrive, he shows us another device__—__some sort of control panel. The interface is button-based, and each of the buttons displays one of the symbols found in the Ring itself. The elder explains that each world in this galaxy has a Ring of its own, and in order to reach a specific one, a sequence of seven symbols must be entered into the control panel: six for the destination, and an 'origin' symbol specific to each planet. He then proceeds to input several different sequences to show us how it works._

_We spend some time watching him use the Ring. It takes us a while to get used to the astonishing sight of the Ring activating each time it connects with another one hundreds of light years away. Finally, the elder steps aside to allow us to practice what we've learned. He points out each of the symbols corresponding to the Lantean colony, and after successfully contacting it, he tells us which is the address to this world for when we decide to return. We thank him just before contacting a few other Lifeworkers and two Miners who are on a seeker, awaiting our instructions. As soon as they arrive and the Miners take the craft back to _Quest_, we all start walking towards the Ring._

_Even in spite of its large size, the threshold is slightly smaller than us. We will need to crouch before crossing. And just before doing so, one more question forms inside my mind. I turn back to the elder. "What is the name of the world we are travelling to?"_

_The elder hesitates before answering, trying to remember. "I think they call it… Athos."_

* * *

**_100 years after the Halo Event_**

**_Seven days after first contact_**

_I am starting to question myself how much more surprised can we get._

_Our journey to Athos was quite an experience. I cannot say how long it took us to get there, even though the human elder said our passage would be almost immediate. We arrived at a large, barren plain surrounded by forest, and we were able to contact _Quest_ with the communicator we had brought with us. Then, while we waited for our ship to arrive here, we decided to venture away from the ring in the hopes of finding any sign of Lantean presence in the planet._

_It wasn't long before we sighted a small yet magnificent settlement with architecture rivaling even our own and which, to the best of our knowledge, was built upon ordinary materials and not neural physics, thus confirming that these were _not_ Precursors. The mystery was almost solved._

_The city was on the other side of a lake, so it took us some time to get there. But before we could reach the entrance, we were intercepted by a small, cylinder-shaped aircraft which flew above and around us for some time before descending in front of us. It didn't look menacing at all, but we still had to make it clear we came in peace, so I invited the Lifeworkers to follow my example as I instructed my ancilla to unfold my armor aside while I remained only in my underlinings. If the Lanteans were not pleased with our presence, such decision would effectively become our undoing, but I still believed such would not be the case._

_The hatch on the back of the ship opened slowly, at a rate that made our expectations grow exponentially higher. My mind was already creating every possible image to picture this race, but not in a thousand years would it have imagined what my eyes finally saw._

_More humans._

_I do not know if the shock of this revelation showed at all in my face or that of my companions. Surely, I thought, these were just messengers for the Lanteans, for there was no possible way that humans could create something as advanced as the Rings of Life. And yet when the people in front of us__—__two males and two females__—__looked up to match our gaze… somehow, I knew it to be true._

_Aside from this, I was concerned about the possibility that we would not be able to establish proper contact until _Quest_ arrived at the system to provide translation. But such concern was unfounded._

_"Welcome, distant travelers," one of the females said cheerfully in _our_ language. For a moment, I wondered how could they know, but then I figure they must have been monitoring our conversation with _Quest_'s crew._

_"Word of your arrival has spread among many worlds," the female continues; surely the traders we saw the other day were responsible for this. "We have been expecting you. How may we call you?"_

_Chant spoke up first. "We are For__—__," she began, but as she sensed me staring on her, she paused. Before leaving the Ark, we all made an oath as race to never again use that term to call ourselves, instead returning to the very roots of our existence, to the name that we used before taking the Mantle by force. "We are Furlings. Thank you for welcoming us."_

_"We are the Lanteans," one of the males said. "The High Council will want to meet you."_

_I was waiting for them to lead us inside the settlement, but after a few awkward moments of silence, I hesitantly asked, "Are they coming here?"_

_"Oh, no," the female replied. "I'm afraid they're not here. We will have to take you to Atlantis so you can meet them."_

_Atlantis?" Chant asks._

_"Our capital city and center of government," the male replies, "in the Lantea system. We could take you there through the Stargate, or we could wait for your ship to get here and then take you there in it."_

Stargate_. They must be referring to the Ring. The name surely describes it well. "We would prefer to go there by ship," I say. "Will you guide us, or just tell us where to go?"_

_"We can guide you," the male said. "In the meantime, we will do what we can to make you comfortable. Come, this way."_

_They guided us into the settlement__—__which looked more like a small city than anything else__—__and took us to the most spacious building they could find for staying, given our size. There, we waited yet another day for _Quest_, during which the Lanteans queried us about our origins, history, and the reason why we had not crossed paths before. We answered most of their questions as truthfully as possible, but none of us had the courage to admit our fault and responsibility for the destruction of our galaxy._

_We tried to learn as much as we could about the Lanteans as well. They told us their true name was Alterans and that they had been forced to abandon their home galaxy just like us, due to a plague which afflicted them there. They took the name 'Lanteans' as a symbol of their new beginning after arriving at this galaxy and seeding human life in it. They are indeed peaceful and live only to gain knowledge, but they do have offensive and defensive capabilities if they are ever attacked or if any race ever tries to conquer other by force._

_They are everything we ever truly wanted to be._

_We are now exiting Slipspace at the coordinates the Lanteans have provided us, after a journey of almost two days. They have admitted to be surprised by our ship's 'limited' interstellar capabilities, which makes me wonder how more advanced must they be for them to say such a thing._

_They are now heading to the seeker bay where they left their own ship, while my entourage and I board a seeker. From what we have been told, Atlantis is located I the middle of a massive ocean, and since _Quest_ is just too big for it to land on the city, the seeker will have to take us down._

_We fly through the planet's atmosphere in only a few seconds, and when we are clear of the clouds, my eyes become fixed on a small object resting above the ocean's surface which grows larger and larger as we approach. It takes some time for my mind to take in the majesty of what I see once we are finally upon it._

_Despite its relative size, Atlantis is, in fact, more magnificent and wonderful than anything we have ever created. Its beauty cannot be compared to anything we have ever seen, not even to anything ever made by the Precursors._

_And to think humans built it._

_Even so, the sight of this city is now like the beacon of hope we have been hoping to find… and which we have found._

* * *

**_100 years after the Halo Event_**

**_13 days after first contact_**

_Ascension._

_This is the name the Lanteans have given to a natural evolutionary process during which the mind of a living being becomes energy and moves in this state to another, higher plane of existence, leaving its mortal shell behind. In essence, the being reaches a state of immortality._

_It is the transcendence we have been so desperately trying to find._

_I have learned this from the Lanteans themselves who have been researching Ascension for a long time. Even for all their achievements and intelligence, this is the one step in their evolutionary journey that only a few have managed to reach naturally. Others have resorted to science to artificially accelerate this stage, and though a handful succeeded, the others believe such is not the right way to achieve enlightenment._

_This is only one of the few great things I have learned by spending time in Atlantis. I know my original and some of his former Warrior-Servants would kill me for this, but I am certain these people hold the key to redemption we have been looking for. The Mantle is still offering us the final opportunity to redeem ourselves, if we just move past our former hatred of humans and are willing to let _them_ teach _us_, as it was always intended. So I have tried to say to my fellow Furlings. I hoped they would listen and heed my words… but they became filled with fear and dread when they learned about yet another revelation._

_We now know, also by words of the Lanteans, that they were indeed in our galaxy ten million years ago, roughly around the time our ancestors rose to destroy the Precursors and took the Mantle by force. Moreover, the Lanteans had forged an alliance with the Precursors during the short time they spent there. Some among us even believe this encounter may have influenced the decision the Precursors made about who would inherit the Mantle._

_I had believed this would enrage our people, but in reality, it made their hearts falter. Most of them think the Mantle has delivered us to the only race capable of making justice in the name of our creators, those we exterminated millions of years ago. I have tried to convince them of the contrary but they will not listen. They are pleading me to leave as soon as possible, to seek our redemption elsewhere, to avoid our utter destruction altogether instead of honorably facing the justice of the Mantle__—__a justice which I believe would not have us die after our attempts to do what is correct._

_Truly, our sins keep pursuing us._

* * *

**_100 years after the Halo Event_**

**_14 days after first contact_**

_I have yielded to the pressure of my compatriots. The few of us who were as guests in Atlantis have had to leave under the cover of the night like cowards. Our ship has already plotted a new course that will take us away not only from this world, but from this galaxy as well. It has been decided that we flee to the galaxy the Lanteans abandoned, in the hopes that the plague they told us about has already subsided._

_And as my fellow Furlings go back to their respective stasis chambers and _Quest_ is creating a rift in Slipspace to begin our journey once more, I cannot help but wonder… Will we really be able to escape from our past simply by turning our backs on it? This brief encounter with a more advanced _human_ race has only served to teach me a simple fact: the ways of the Mantle go far beyond our comprehension. Against all possibilities, we not only found life in a galaxy different from our own, but it was _human_ life. And they had indeed taken their rightful place as protectors of such life._

_Would it not be possible that we might find this insidious life form in yet another galaxy? Could the Mantle have chosen them because of reasons that our minds, advanced as they are, cannot even grasp?_

_Would it not be this the Mantle's way of teaching us the error of our former ways?_

_These thoughts are still in my mind as I start to fall into deep slumber while our ship crosses the great void between this galaxy and our next destination… between our one chance for transcendence and the unknown._

* * *

**A/N: I couldn't help but notice the hit stats for this story are somewhat weird by now. I have more views on Chapter 6 than on Chapter 5, which begets the question, is people inadvertently skipping that chapter? Just a thought. I do admit I still don't know entirely how that works, so...**

**I promise, with all my heart, that I will do everything in my power to have the next chapter finished in a week, but no guarantees. In the meantine, and just for the sake of the occasion, here's a standing challenge for all of you: how many 'seven' references can you find in this fic?**

**Don't forget to review on your way out!**


	8. Echoes from the Past (Part 2)

**A/N: ...on second thought, let's just cut the crap. Here's Chapter 8. Enjoy!  
**

* * *

**_400 years after the Halo Event_**

Bornstellar… wake up.

_That is Chant's voice. Distant and without emotion, but unmistakably hers. It cannot be a dream, since the stasis pods do not allow for such function, which can only mean one thing._ Quest_ has completed its journey through the void. We have arrived._

_To my surprise, this time I am among the last ones to wake up. When I arrive at the command center, it is already crowded. The ship has established orbit above a promising new homeworld from which to begin anew. I should feel relieved about this, except that every other Furling in the room seems worried, which makes me wonder what have they discovered about this planet or this galaxy that could be so troubling for us._

_I look everywhere for Chant, and when I finally find her, I do not feel pleased by what I see in her eyes. "Is something wrong, my love?" I ask her._

_She turns away from me and towards a console. "Look for yourself, Bornstellar."_

_As I approach, the command center walls become transparent, allowing for a complete and clear view of the planet below. It looks eerily familiar, but that is not what Chant wishes me to see. There is something more, something in the surface… Evidence of a sentient life form? Is the planet already populated? And by whom? Then, when a hologram of the same planet appears in front of me and it increases in size to allow for a more detailed view, I find a small cluster of structures… and some of the people who must have built them._

_Primitive humans. They are not unlike the ones we took from the Ark to Erde-Tyrene after the Halo Event, although these may be slightly behind in their evolutionary path. They are certainly less evolved than the human populations back on the Lantean galaxy, but given time, they will reach that same stage._

_How can this be? How is it possible that we keep encountering humans wherever we go? Surely these are the thoughts of each and all Furlings in this ship. And yet, somehow, I knew this would happen even before we left the Lanteans galaxy, before my 300-year long sleep._

_"Everyone is shaken," Chant says. "They are afraid this is a sign of the Precursors, a message intended for us. They think it means there is nowhere to hide, that they are still out there and still intend on entrusting humanity with the Mantle… and with our destruction."_

_I stare at the hologram for a while, as if the answers I'm seeking for my people are hidden somewhere in it. And maybe they are. They have been there since we first arrived at another galaxy inhabited by advanced humans. Back then, the Mantle was teaching me, preparing me for the decision I would have to take one day. This day._

_But I can't make this decision alone, nor can I force it upon my people. This is something we must all be agreeing to do, and it will be difficult to reach such an agreement, even though it could be the means to our redemption._

_"Set a new course for the first planet you can find no less than a hundred light years from here," I order the ship's ancilla. "And warn the rest of the crew about the jump."_

_"Didact, what is your plan?" it asks. I choose not to answer. They will all know soon enough._

* * *

**_400 years after the Halo Event_**

**_Two days after arrival_**

_The planet _Quest_ found was uninhabited, but there was evidence that the Alterans once were here. The ship landed close to the ruins of what could have been one of their greatest cities, even if its architecture predates that of Atlantis. Several columns in and near the city have a name engraved on them: Vis Uban._

_I have called for a meeting at the ship's central chamber, the place where we first gathered to decide whether or not to meet the Lanteans. I can actually see terror in some of the faces in the room as we all come together to discuss the most recent events. It takes me some time to call for order, but eventually the murmur of nearly a hundred Furlings subdues._

_"My fellow Furlings," I begin, "I know there are some among you who have become distraught by the discoveries we have made during our journey. I know that some of you have started to question the meaning of these findings. Some of you have even begun questioning if this voyage is truly worth it, as all it has shown us is that the Mantle is against us in every way, favoring instead a race which seems to evolve everywhere and which we have considered inferior to us for a long time._

_"But perhaps some of you believe as I do._

_"My original fought humans for hundreds of years and came to despise them. I, on the other hand, became friend of two humans, and this friendship gave me a different perspective, one which allowed me to understand a simple truth when I met the Lanteans, a truth that the Mantle and its heralds, the Precursors, had always known: the human race is the best hope for preserving life in the universe."_

_My statement has caused a lot of unrest among the assembled. One of them speaks up. "The IsoDidact is insane! How can a race so inclined towards war and bloodshed preserve life? How could such creatures be worthy of the Mantle we upheld for millions of years?" Many Furlings all over the room agree._

_"Are we any different?" I argue. "For all our accomplishments, for all our desire of knowledge, for all those millennia during which we _supposedly _upheld the Mantle, there is one thing none of us can deny. We are responsible not only for the destruction of the Precursors but also for the extermination of all the life they created in our galaxy. And while you may say we did so to save them, you know we did it just to save ourselves. How are we any different from the human race?"_

_I am certain that many Furlings want to object, but they cannot do so. We all know our sins._

_"So far, we have encountered different human races in two different galaxies aside from our own. One of those races was not even from that galaxy, but from another one millions of light years from here. Who knows how many more galaxies have seen the dawn of human civilizations! The fact that humans have evolved not only in our galaxy but in others as well can only mean one thing: the Mantle has chosen them as protectors._

_"The Lanteans have already fulfilled their role, but these humans are still young, and it will be many years before they reach a more advanced state in their evolutionary progress. I firmly believe it is now our duty to ensure these humans reach their full potential, and if necessary, to help them in their own journey to Reclamation._

_"I would not say this if I were not certain of it. But today I stand before you, knowing that here we have found an opportunity to achieve the very thing we set out to find 400 years ago: redemption. We can redeem ourselves by helping the true inheritors of the Mantle reach their status as protectors of this galaxy instead of just leaving them to find it on their own. And if ever someone else were to rise against them, we must protect them from certain destruction until such a time when they are ready to protect themselves and others._

_"This is our new role, our new mission, our new purpose. The universe is giving us a second chance to do things right, but it is up to us to accept it and make the best of it."_

_I speak no more. My people need time to think and reflect upon this before making a decision. I would like to think that they will come to see things as I do, but the truth is that there are still a lot of resentment against humans among the Furlings. It will not be easy for them to agree towards this course of action._

_Ii's time for a recess. As everyone in the room starts coming together in smaller discussion groups, I walk towards the Lifeshaper who is speaking to a younger Lifeworker. Her name is Grow-Through-Trial-of-Change. I know her; she took care of my friend Morning Riser and the human populations brought to the Lesser Ark until we took them back to Erde-Tyrene during the reseeding._

_"Bornstellar," Chant says, "Trial has come to me with an interesting proposal. I believe you should listen to it." I consent with a nod._

_"Didact," Trial says, "if I may express my humble opinion, I believe you are taking the wrong approach if you intend to convince _every_ Forerunner to help and protect these primitive humans."_

_"'Furlings'," I correct._

_"Apologies, Didact."_

_"Accepted. Tell me, have I at least convinced _you_?"_

_"Yes, Didact. In fact, I believe all Lifeworkers will support you. But Builders, Miners, and Engineers–and especially Builders–will need more… convincing before deciding in favor of the human race."_

_For the first time, I feel fortunate to be the very last living Warrior-Servant. If Builders, Miners, and Engineers have not been yet convinced, Warrior-Servants would certainly not be willing to help their worst enemy._

_"And you have something that could help?" I ask._

_"Indeed, I do," Trial replies. _

* * *

**_400 years after the Halo Event_**

**_Five days after arrival_**

_This day will become a turning point on our history. Today, we decide… Today, we vote._

_Two days ago, I called for a second meeting, but this time it was not I who spoke to them, but the Lifeshaper. I know most Furlings belonging to other rates believed she would just support the argument I had already presented. They were wrong._

_"My brothers and sisters," she began with a calm voice, yet commanding an authority that even I had not been able to bring forth the day before, "there is no denying that we are different in many ways. We all come from different rates, guilds, and families. We all think differently, act differently, _feel_ differently. But deep within, there is something that unites us all, something that goes beyond the genetic bond that makes us all Furlings: we all still wish to serve the Mantle._

_"For millions of years, we worked hard to protect life, including our own. Then the Flood came and threatened to destroy everything we held dear. It challenged us, _taunted_ us to try and do something to save every single life it consumed. And when we learned about its origins… everything we once believed, everything we stood for, was shaken and lost forever. In the end, we had no choice but to leave the ways of the Mantle and use the Halos to eradicate the life we had safeguarded almost since the dawn of our race._

_"All done to ensure that the Flood would never again rise._

_"We stand here today, each and every one of us, the last of one of the greatest races to ever inhabit the stars. We have finally put aside our arrogance and admitted that we never deserved the Mantle, that we took it by force and almost annihilated its true inheritors. But now we know that, one day, they will rise once more, and without us there meddling with their lives and the lives of others, they will find their own way and become everything we never were."_

_My eyes focused on each of the attendees, looking for any indication that they would charge against the Lifeshaper for saying such words. I felt somewhat relieved when the worst I saw was boredom in some faces._

_"Yet for all we have planned and for all we have done before setting out on our Journey, we decided to take the risk of leaving our galaxy in the hands of the humans while the possibility still remains that the Flood may still return _before_ the Reclaimers rise. After all, we have no way of knowing whether we killed every last Flood spore or if there are more somewhere out there, biding their time. And what will happen if the parasite does return and lay waste to everything in its path? What will happen if it somehow attains the knowledge and the means to venture further away from that galaxy and spread out to other stars beyond those they consume?_

_"What will happen if those humans _fail_?"_

_One could hear the falling of a drop of water amidst that silence. Everyone was now staring blankly at the Lifeshaper._

_"What we have found in this Journey is more than just another human world. We have found an opportunity. Here is a word of which the parasite knows nothing about. We can take this human world and prepare its inhabitants to stand against the Flood if everything else we have done fails. This can become our backup plan. This can be our failsafe._

_"We have already planted the seeds inside the humans of Erde-Tyrene. We can do it here as well. We _must_ do it here as well. I am asking you to vote in favor of the Didact's proposal, not for the humans, but for ourselves and for everything we have worked for. Do not let your pride and grudges prevent you from doing what is correct. We may yet serve the Mantle if we can prevent the Flood from consuming everything!"_

_Chant made a compelling point. This was Trial's idea: to create an alternate version of Erde-Tyrene on this planet. The Lifeshaper presented it in such a way that no Furling dared attempt to speak against her. She left the room without another word and left our people to consider her words. That was yesterday._

_Now, I am the one who is standing before them again. And once I know for certain that every single Furling has attended this final meeting, I raise a hand to call for attention._

_"My people, is there anyone in this ship who would like to bring forward another proposal or to refute the one we have already presented?" No Furling replies. "So be it. And know this: if any one of you decides not to approve this plan, none of us will follow through with it. This has to be a unanimous decision._

_"Now I ask you: Who will stand in favor of this proposal?"_

* * *

**_500 years after the Halo Event_**

_It is done._

_It took a hundred years of extensive research and preparations, but finally our plan has been enacted. Over the course of a few weeks, Chant and her Lifeworkers have visited every single human in their sleep and imbued them with _geas_, specially modified for these specimens but containing the same set of 'instructions' we placed in the populations left at Erde-Tyrene. Even if these humans remain 500 years behind their counterparts in our former home galaxy, we have ensured that they, just like those, will eventually reach an advanced stage in their evolution, enough to take their place in this galaxy as Protectors._

_As for their homeworld__—__which we have named 'Altera' after its original human inhabitants__—__, we need only make a few… adjustments to the layout of its landmasses. In the course of the next thousand years or so, a number of machines we have deployed beneath the planet's crust will generate a series of small, harmless shockwaves that will shape the continents of this world to make them look like those of Erde-Tyrene, so that these humans will populate every part of this planet following the same paths as those at Erde-Tyrene. The rest of the planets in this system were also modified to match the Erde-Tyrene system._

_Quite possibly the only real difference between 'our' humans and these will be that these will not have the benefit of the legacy we left behind in the form of artifacts and technology back in our galaxy for the Reclaimers. Still, given enough time, they will reach the same level of advancement we once achieved, maybe even higher._

_For we shall not reestablish our great ecumene in this galaxy nor anywhere else. We are not masters anymore but servants at the service of the future upholders of the Mantle. As such, we have left Vis Uban and moved to another planet, one completely uninhabited and with a Stargate. Here we can rebuild our civilization from scratch, not to guard but to humbly guide others. This is our new homeworld._

_My wife has the knowledge we need to begin anew as a great yet lower race__—__knowledge attained by the Librarian when she travelled to Path Kethona and passed down to us along with every record of every research Lifeworkers ever conducted. According to the Librarian's account, when she was at Path Kethona, she encountered the descendants of Forerunners who had gone into a self-imposed exile millions of years ago__—__just after they had killed every Precursor they had been able to find. These people had devolved so much, both physically and mentally, that they had become more like humans than Forerunners, but for all intents and purposes, they were _still_ Forerunners._

_Upon her return, the Librarian formulated several theories about how those exiles had managed to devolve. She finally came up not only with an answer but also with a genetic treatment that would allow for other Forerunners to do the same thing. Chant now asserts that if the next generation of Manipulars is _not_ given our genetic imprint, she can make it so that they devolve physically into something similar to what those Forerunners became _while_ retaining the knowledge and mental capabilities we now have, using the Librarian's original research as a basis to conduct her own._

_I believe she can do it. So do our children, who have already volunteered to be the first test subjects. They still have to wait some time before this, though, but I already begin to see the makings of leadership in many of them. They will become great Furlings when the time comes._

_For the moment, I must still lead my people in this new path, and I will continue to do so for many more centuries. However, my wife and I have already started to consider the possibility that the Furlings may yet need us at a time when we are no longer present. Perhaps there is a way… Perhaps…_

* * *

**_70,000 years after the Halo Event_**

_Pride. Not selfish, but humble._

_When I was placed in the timelock I built over sixty thousand years ago (the device was based on the one the humans had created to contain the Primordial), my race had already progressed far beyond my wife's and my greatest expectations. But today, I have seen our descendants and the fruits of their labor… and I am proud of them._

_They have become a great and wise race, united as one. Titles such as 'Builder' or 'Lifeworker' are no longer used to describe rates but mere professions. There is a governing body, but its members do not consider themselves above the people who have appointed them. They are all equals. But most importantly, they have not used their might to rule over the rest. I had feared that, over time, the temptation to return to our old ways would overcome our children. Now, I can say this with utmost joy._

_These people__—_my_ people__—__are the Furlings._

_Sixty thousand years ago, I left explicit instructions that I was not to be reawakened unless the circumstances were really dire. Such is not the case this time, but we still have to be cautious about this delicate situation._

_A planet exists that is home to two different species. One is an extremely resilient bipedal life form, sentient but rather primitive. The other is a parasite, a snake-like creature capable of burrowing into the heads of larger beings, effectively possessing it and exerting complete control of its host. A group of Furlings who were exploring the planet had a close encounter with these parasites. Some of our people were taken over by them, and the parasites immediately displayed an ability to communicate through the hosts. Those who avoided the creatures were able to capture the infected and bring them back to our world, where they remained under custody until I was reawakened. They were brought before me, and I questioned them._

_The parasites call themselves the Goa'uld. Despite their natural inferiority, they have displayed quite an advanced level of intelligence, but they also show signs of extreme deviousness. They refused to willingly let go of their hosts, and so the Lifeworkers had to remove the creatures forcibly. The hosts survived and have resumed their duties, although they will not soon forget their unpleasant experience. The extracted Goa'uld perished during the process._

_If only the Flood could be as easily eliminated…_

_Somehow, the bipedal creatures that share their world with the Goa'uld have avoided becoming their hosts; if that changes, though, and the Goa'uld use them to leave to other worlds by means of the Stargate, they could eventually become a menace. Had we faced this problem during our era as Forerunners, we would have opted for a permanent solution before the situation progressed any further, such as the complete destruction of the parasites or the removal of the Stargate from the planet to strand them there._

_For the moment, we can only be wary and vigilant._

_I have now returned to the small tower where I have lay in slumber for the past several thousand years__—__the Didact's Temple, as our descendants have called it__—__and entered my timelock. In a few moments, the Lifeworkers in charge of the tower and the device will activate it once more, and I will find myself suspended in time until my people have need of me again. And just as the timelock is about to be activated…_

_I see her._

_My wife. Not Chant; before we wished each other our final farewell, she chose to spend the remainder of her days in trying to achieve Ascension, based on the few things we were able to learn about it during our short time in Atlantis._

_No. The person right in front of me is my first, eternally young wife…_

_The Librarian._

* * *

**_90,000 years after the Halo Event_**

_Ninety thousand years of planning and working to ensure that the humans would be protected… all torn asunder._

_Not ten days ago, the timelock was once more deactivated. However, instead of finding myself among Furlings, I was surrounded by a sizable number of humans. The next thing I knew, I had been overcome by a bright light, and when it vanished, my captors and I were in a different place. I was aboard a ship, the likes of which I had never seen before, by means I still cannot comprehend._

_Other Furlings were there as well, also under guard, and there were a few other beings too, walking around the room we were at. Some of them were small and skinny, even shorter than a Florian like Riser, but they were not human at all; in any case, they had a human_oid_ appearance. They wore no clothes, but on closer inspection, they did not have _anything_ to hide at all. They had heads proportionally bigger than the rest of their bodies and large, black eyes that seemed to analyze their surroundings down to a molecular level._

_The others actually had an uncanny resemblance to Riser, albeit with a… messier hair. Them I was amazed by. The way they walked; the way they talked; the way they looked into your eyes and burrowed inside the very depths of your soul. It was as if they were one with the Mantle; indeed, these were the most peaceful people we had ever met._

_Soon, I would learn that the ones who looked like my old Florian friend were called Nox, that the smaller ones were called Asgard, and that both races were allies to the humans who had captured us. And the humans themselves were Alterans, evacuees from Atlantis who had just come back to Altera via the Stargate… and had learned about our interference with the humans on the planet._

_And now, we were being taken to our trial._

_I cannot imagine through which means they could have known about our interference so fast, other than the possibility that we had been watched since the moment we began meddling with the humans' fate. True, we did it only with the best of intentions… but then, we also took the Mantle upon ourselves millions of years ago with the best of intentions. Since the moment we met the Lanteans__—__now, once more, Alterans__—__, I wondered when the universe would decide that it was time for us to face justice and make amends for our sins with our lives. Now, it seems as though that day has come._

_In spite of the fact that we were convicts on our way to our trial, we had been granted the liberty to wander about the ship as long as we had an escort with us at all times. I left the room I had appeared at with two armed Alterans behind me. I found a window overlooking our planet, and just before leaving, I had the opportunity to behold it once more._

_It felt as though it would be the last time I would see it._

_The journey was quite short; we have already arrived. The world we have been taken to looks like an even darker version of Edom, the fourth planet in the Erde-Tyrene system__—__and consequently, the Altera system. Once more, we are transported in the blink of an eye from the ship to the surface, where a large, lone mountain dominates the landscape__—__and the massive courtyard of an ancient city, clearly Alteran in design, possibly built even before Vis Uban._

_In this courtyard, a large gathering of all three of the races we saw aboard the ship are waiting for us in solemn silence, as well as three representatives from each race who are sitting around a stone table about a hundred yards in front of the Stargate and who will surely act as judges. We are guided before them._

_The Alteran in the center of the table stands. He is a bald, elder man who despite his size looks taller than anybody else in this place and who displays in his face the wisdom and strength of a great, seasoned leader._

_"Stand before Moros, High Councilor of Atlantis!" someone on the background speaks in our language, and his words echo throughout the courtyard. The former Lantean focuses his gaze on me._

_"IsoDidact," he begins with a loud and clear voice. "Known to some as Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting. Former Warrior-Servant and Promethean Commander, and the last great leader of the Furlings. You and your kind have been brought here to be judged by this Alliance for crimes committed not only against the people of this galaxy, but also against the people of _your_ home galaxy."_

_These first words make me flinch. They already know more than I thought possible._

_And there is no denying our fault._

* * *

**_90,000 years after the Halo Event_**

**_15 days after the Alterans' arrival_**

_The first part of the trial lasted for hours, as the councilors took considerable time to describe each of our crimes, none of which were false, although some of them had been somewhat exaggerated. Still, the information they gave was quite thorough and accurate. It could not be otherwise, since it came from many Furlings who were brave enough to admit _every_ single sin our kind had ever committed when questioned by the Alterans days ago._

_When the judges had finished reciting the long list of crimes, I gathered enough courage to pronounce my very first words in all day. "Honorable Alterans," I began, "I have listened to each and every one of the accusations against us, and before you pass sentence, I only ask that you let me speak before this Alliance."_

_Moros graciously conceded me the word, and I turned to address the crowd around us._

_"Noble and wise Alterans, Nox, and Asgard. I stand before you this day, not to refute any of the crimes you have listed, but to confess them. We _are_ guilty. We took by force something that was not intended for us, and from that moment forward, we have done more harm than good to the universe. We destroyed an entire galaxy and interfered with the affairs of another one… and we defended our actions claiming that it was for the greater good._

_"We have been fools._

_"That is why my people and I have always known that this day would come… and we have been preparing for it. We have tried to make amends in as many ways as possible, and now we are at peace and ready to receive our punishment. But before that, there is something you must know._

_"You have spoken of the Mantle as nothing more than a mere philosophy. It is not. The Mantle is the exalted preservation of life throughout the universe, the joy of life's interaction with the Cosmos, the flow of Living Time. It creates, it brings balance, and it entrusts those who are worthy with the responsibility for all living things. We were _not_ worthy, but we still took this responsibility upon ourselves, and we brought only death and destruction. _You_, however, have taken your place and fulfilled your role, even without fully knowing it. All of you have become guardians, protectors, and caretakers. Even this trial is proof that you serve the Mantle. You have been chosen, indeed!_

_"Now, I beg of you: heed these words._

_"Over ten million years ago, my kind rose against those who had given us breath and form, and of whom you were once allies. After driving them away from our galaxy, my ancestors fought and destroyed the Precursors__—__or so they thought. Then, we assumed the role of caretakers and enforcers of the Mantle, and called ourselves Forerunners. And our first crime was forgotten by everyone… except the Precursors who survived. In order to escape, they became dust that could regenerate their past forms. They placed themselves in automated ships which would then float in space for many millennia, returning to _us_. But that time rendered the dust defective. Instead of regenerating the Precursors, it gave birth to a terrible plague that would soon grow and consume everything in its path. We came to know it as the Flood._

_"The Forerunners fought this parasite for centuries, and only when it became apparent that there was no other way, we used an array of weapons built as a last resort to destroy the Flood… and everything they fed upon. And even though we reseeded the galaxy with every life form we could save, there is still a possibility that the Flood may yet return one day. And if the Reclaimers of the Mantle in our galaxy fail to destroy this plague, nothing will be able to stand between it and the rest of the universe._

_"We have done what we can to ensure this never happens again. Now, all of you must continue to do the same. Protect everyone in this galaxy, but especially the humans. They have the potential to become a great race. This we have learned from you," and here I turned to acknowledge Moros and the Alterans. "Certainly, the ways in which we tried to preserve and prepare the humans on Altera were not the best, but we did so knowing that it would help them rise and take their rightful place. You cannot let them be harmed by anything or anyone! The future of the universe depends on it!"_

_And after that, I fell silent._

_We were taken back to the ship for the night while the Alliance Council deliberated on our verdict. At dawn, we were transported back to the planet, where once again a large number of people awaited for the final decision of the judges. While we waited for them, I noticed one of the Alterans among the crowd was staring at me in a different way than the rest. It was a sympathetic look._

_The councilors finally arrived. All of them took a seat, except Moros who call me forth._

_"Didact, over millions of years your kind has brought more devastation than any other race ever to inhabit the known universe. Your actions as a race unleashed a series of events that resulted in the creation of an abomination, and _you_ personally are responsible for the deaths of untold billions of lives. Not even the death of every single one of your people could be enough payment for these crimes._

_"However, the Nox have convinced this Council that at least some of your actions were done with atonement in mind. After all, you _did_ try everything in your power to safeguard as many lives as you could before and after activating the Halos, both in your galaxy and in this one. Your people have not arisen ever again to take on a role that is not yours, but you have instead shared knowledge freely to many more races in this galaxy._

_"So, in light of all this, we have decided to spare your life and the lives of your people. But you shall be banished to the planet you chose as homeworld, and you will never again be permitted to go anywhere else. You will be allowed to thrive in your world, but you will not be allowed to create anything that might become a means to leave it. And if any of your kind were to defy this sentence, you will all be doomed. This is our verdict."_

_"You cannot do this!" the Alteran I saw before rose and shouted out loud for everyone else to hear. "This is hardly a just sentence! They deserve something better than__—!__"_

_"Silence, Janus!" Moros exclaimed. "Do not try my patience any further, or the next trial will be yours!"_

_The Alteran Moros had referred to as Janus reluctantly took back his seat. And when I turned to see him, she was by his side. No one else seemed to notice her, not even him._

_Was this a figment of my mind, a hallucination of some kind? Otherwise, how could _she_ be here?_

_"You will be given seven Earth days to call your people back from any other world they may be in now," Moros concluded, focusing his attention back on me. "No Furling shall remain outside of your planet after that time, lest we bring the full force of our justice upon you. This trial is over."_

_And with those last words, we were taken once more to the Asgard ship that had brought us there._

_My people are now returning from every last corner of the galaxy to our homeworld… a small orb in the middle of a vast galaxy which in time will become our final resting place. I suppose out of all the fates that could have befallen us, this is definitely not the worst of them. Here, my kind and I will have a chance to finally become one with the Mantle as we spend the remainder of our days in meditation and preparation to begin our true Great Journey to Ascension._

_Our quest is over._

* * *

**A/N: OK, now that we're done with this chapter...  
**

**To be honest, I felt kinda disappointed to receive only 3 reviews for the previous chapter; then again, I _did_ ask you repeatedly (perhaps even annoyingly) to read the Forerunner Saga before reading Chapter 7. Whatever the reasons, I just hope the sudden decrease in reviews has nothing to do with something I might have said, but if that is the case, I offer you all my most sincere apologies.**

**I also know that Chapter 7 was sort of slow and even boring, but it was neccessary to understand the rest of this 'backstory'. I just hope I made some amends with this one, and I certainly hope you'll love the next one, as it will reveal a couple more things that will be crucial to the rest of the present-day story.**

**I won't promise anything this time, as I have discovered I'm not that good with self-imposed deadlines. Just bear with me a little, please?**

**My challenge remains: how many 'seven' references can you find? See you soon!  
**


	9. Echoes from the Past (Part 3)

**A/N: So, let's wrap this up with Chapter 9!  
**

**(Don't forget to read A/N at the end)**

* * *

** _91,500 years after the Halo Event_**

**_1,500 years after Trial_**

_When we were banished from this galaxy fifteen centuries ago, I chose not to return to the timelock in favor of spending the years of life that I still had ahead of me in preparation to ascend. Ever since, I have begun to appreciate the simple beauty of our world, which I know the Librarian would have loved. Our descendants were wise enough to build only small cities and maintain a certain degree of population control, and so, most of the surface is barely untouched in spite of the thousands of years we have lived here. I have made it a routine to rise every morning and look out my window, from the house I built atop one of the mountains surrounding the valley below, when the sun casts its light upon the green hills and the crystalline rivers that cross the valley, creating a beautiful landscape that each day is different and unique. The fact that there are no ships covering the sky of this world only makes it even better._

_For that reason, when I woke up this day and saw the sky, I was surprised to find it was littered by a massive number of ships, most of which I recognized as Asgard vessels. My heart sank into my chest; had any Furling violated the sentence we had been given by the Alliance? Was this our end?_

_My answer came almost instantly in the form of an Asgard who materialized right in front of me._

_"Greetings, IsoDidact," he said. "I am Kvasir, member of the Asgard High Council. You presence has been requested."_

_"My presence?" I repeated hesitantly. Then, I was enveloped by a bright light._

_It faded for only a moment, during which I could see the interior of one of the Asgard ships, before it reappeared and faded once more. By now it was obvious to me that I had just been transported. This time, however, when the flash subsided, I found myself in the middle of the arena built thousands of years ago at the Old City, the first capital we had founded on our new homeworld, abandoned when the last of the original survivors of the Halo event besides my wife and I had passed away. The old Forerunner style of architecture used before the activation of the Halo Array had also been used here for the very last time, and up until now it still stood tall and mighty._

_A monument to all our sins._

_"Why have I been brought here?" I demanded._

_"I asked that you be here," a voice behind me replied. Fifteen hundred years had passed, but I still recognized that voice. It belonged to the only Alteran who had stood for us at our trial. The one called Janus. But how? I knew Alterans didn't live longer than a hundred years, so he should have died a long time ago._

_As I turned around to see him, a light even brighter than the one that had brought me here illuminated the place, carrying a large number of Nox, Asgard, _and_ Furlings with it. In an instant, the previously empty arena became filled with people, and where only one Alteran and one Asgard had been standing beside me, there were now three Nox, two more Asgard, and two more Alterans… and a table for them to sit around._

_It was all disturbingly familiar._

_Janus walked behind the table and took a place at the center but remained standing, while everyone else sat down, including my people who looked just as confused as I was. There was no presenting him, no solemnity in the air. The very fact that all these people were brought here _after_ me suggested a lack of organization and a need to do this as soon as possible… whatever _this_ was._

_"IsoDidact," Janus began, "1,500 years ago, this Alliance condemned you and your kind to a life of banishment and shame. Today, I have requested that we gather here, in your homeworld, to discuss the revocation of that sentence."_

What?_ I thought._

_Janus then addressed the crowd. "When this Alliance first brought the Furlings to trial, the Didact chose to confess instead of trying to defend his actions. He then proclaimed called us 'worthy protectors' and 'chosen ones', believing us to be the epitome of what they called the Mantle. Had he known _everything_ about us just like we learned everything about them prior to that trial, I doubt his words would have been so nice._

_"This Alliance, led back then by Moros, had the _nerve_ to dictate sentence upon the Furlings under the banner of justice and fair retribution, and then the judges decided to be 'magnanimous' and _only_ send them back home, never again to leave it… to protect the galaxy from them. What arrogance! Were we such great protectors when we decided to leave an entire galaxy at the mercy of the Wraith just to save our skins?_

_"Now, just for the Didact's benefit, let me remind you all of the events that brought us back here. As far as we know, the Wraith came to be after thousands of years of evolution, during which the insect we called Iratus fed upon a great many humans that lived on the same planet as the creature and slowly began absorbing the DNA of its victims and blended it with its own. When we first encountered the final result of this blending, we believed the inferior to us and easy to deal with. But they proved otherwise and began establishing a foothold on world after world, feeding upon its inhabitants and leaving only enough survivors behind to allow their numbers to grow so that they would be able to repeat the process all over again. In the end, Atlantis was all that remained._

_"Oh, we did fight. We did achieve some victories. We even drove back the Wraith on several occasions. But they kept coming, more and more each day. They drove us to desperation, up to the point when some of us decided to build a new kind of weapon, smaller but more lethal than anything we had ever created. It turned out to be a failure, for instead of fighting the Wraith, it evolved into an advanced artificial race that turned against humans out of envy. We were forced to destroy them, despite the fact that they were a fully sentient people; artificial, yes, but none the less alive. Finally, seeing no other solution, we chose to flee our galaxy instead of fighting until the last one of us was dead. Why? Because we were above the rest of the galaxy that had all but perished in its entirety?_

_"At least the Furlings, still bearing the title of Forerunners, had the courage to sacrifice themselves to save their galaxy! Moros _conveniently_ ignored the fact that the vast majority of Forerunners died along with every other race they knew when the Halo Array was fired. They could all have saved themselves before, hiding in their Ark and activating their terrible weapons long before they did, yet they chose to stand up against the Flood until there were no more Forerunners left to fight. _That_ is the action of a real protector!_

_"Now tell me, were we such great caretakers when we ignored the Didact's warnings, allowing the Goa'uld to take over Earth and transplant some of its population to other plants in order to enslave them?"_

_Having heard about the Wraith was already troubling, but when I heard about the Goa'uld… I could feel the old Warrior-Servant inside me awakening after thousands of years of slumber, and before I could refrain them, the words had already left my mouth._

_"HOW COULD YOU?!" I heard myself scolding at the Alliance leaders in front of me who flinched when I began moving forward. "How could you have let this happen?! Those humans were your responsibility now, and you left them to rot!" And that was followed by a series of Forerunner Warrior curses, the likes of which I had never used even after my original had imprinted me. Maybe it was a subconscious trace of him._

_Surprisingly, in spite of the possibility that I could get out of control and charge against the judges at any moment, Janus did not give the order to silence me, instead waiting patiently until I finished ranting against everyone around me before resuming. Finally, I calmed down and regained my composure._

_"I'm sorry you had to learn about it this way, Didact," Janus said. "You should know that I tried everything I could to convince the Alliance Council to place Earth under protection, but after several unsuccessful attempts, I resorted to a self-imposed exile. I built a stasis chamber in a desolate world and went to sleep in it until such a time when Moros and the rest of the former Lantean Council had either died or ascended and the sentence they had given you was virtually forgotten. Unfortunately, when I woke up three days ago, it was too late. And that," he addressed the assembly again, "is why I insist today not only that we revoke the sentence imposed on the Furlings, but also that we include the Furlings in this Alliance."_

_A soft murmur began rising all over the arena from people who were expressing out loud the same shock and surprise I was feeling in that instant. Revoking a sentence was one thing; convincing these people to include our race in their Alliance was something else altogether. Why would Janus propose such a thing?_

_"I know many of you are questioning the wisdom behind such a decision. But the truth is, if we Alterans, being so imperfect and even less worthy than the Furlings, were allowed a place in this Alliance, then they deserve a place among us, too! They deserve an opportunity to prove themselves! They have so much to offer, not only to us but to the rest of this galaxy as well. And besides all this, we will also need them if we intend to bring the Goa'uld domination on Earth to an end._

_"Now, unlike the previous trial, I suggest we take some time to consider this carefully before making a final decision. Review what you must, discuss what you need to discuss, analyze carefully every piece of evidence. I believe you will come to the same conclusion as I."_

* * *

**_91,500 years after the Halo Event_**

**_Nine days into Second Trial_**

_Janus visited me today at my house. My first thought was that the Council had reached a decision and he had come in person to tell me, but I began doubting that assumption when he entered into my private mountain dwelling in a mysterious way, almost as if he wanted not to be seen with me._

_"Didact, we have something really important to discuss," he told me once he was inside. "But before I begin, you must promise me to keep this meeting a secret. Many lives depend on it." He seemed earnest, and up to that point he had done everything he could to help us, so I decided to trust him. I gave him my word that I would not tell anyone about this._

_Then, he revealed something to me that at first sounded extremely illogical to me, but that began making sense the more he kept talking. Trying to record it from memory with my own words as I have done in previous entries would not be enough. Fortunately, shortly after the beginning of this second trial, I was allowed to resume use of my ancient Forerunner armor—safely stored away in my 'Temple' for over 70,000 years—, and its ancilla recorded the entire conversation. This is what Janus told me, in his very own words:_

"I sympathize with you, Didact, not only because I see the truth of your words and the reason behind your actions, but because I am just like you. I, too, did things for which I am not proud, believing they were the right thing to do; and even when I ended up discarding most of my _own_ work after seeing the consequences, I kept trying to find a way to fight the Wraith instead of hiding behind the safety of Atlantis' shield. The Council censored my actions, and I became a pariah among my own people… but that hardly stopped me.

"Among my last inventions, I built a time-traveling device within one of our Gateships, in the hopes that I would be able to go back in time to prevent the origin of the Wraith. Once more, the Council prohibited me from constructing it, but I did it regardless. However, before I could implement my plan, something happened.

"I met a human from Earth… from the future Earth."

_He paused here, allow me to digest what he had just said; then, he continued:_

"Her name was Dr. Elizabeth Weir. She was the leader of an expedition that had been looking for our Lost City for years. It was thanks to her that I learned a few things from the humans of the future Earth, and only then I came to _reluctantly_ agree with the rest of the Council to leave Atlantis, personally knowing that in the future, these people would be able to do what we couldn't. Dr. Weir remained behind in Atlantis when we left, resting in stasis, in the hopes of being reunited with her people in the future. I had to destroy the time-traveling device before going back to Earth.

"During your first trial, there was something that kept telling me to defend you, to support you. You could call it a voice inside my head. Then, after your banishment, I went to a world lost and forgotten indeed, to conceal my work from the Lantean Council. This you have heard already, but what no one else knows is that I didn't build a stasis chamber, though I had a hard time convincing the Alliance otherwise. The truth is, I rebuilt my time machine, and I used it to jump forward in time 2,000 years to escape from the wrath of Moros. By that year, the Goa'uld had already taken over the galaxy.

"After learning that, I used the machine to jump between centuries, trying to measure the extent of the damage caused by the Goa'uld, both on Earth an in every world they dominated. And just a few thousand years into the future, I discovered something that gave me hope. The humans on Earth had rebelled against their oppressors, and the Goa'uld had been overthrown.

"I kept traveling more, and at one point I decided to measure what would happen in one single world over hundreds of years. You should be glad to know that, ten thousand years from now, a small group of people from Earth arrived there and were able to defeat one Goa'uld who tried to conquer that planet. They called themselves SG-1.

"Of course, they had a little help from me, since I had to leave my Time Gateship behind for them to use in defeating this particular Goa'uld. Building another one didn't take long… but then, I began wondering. Why had the humans on Earth risen up against their 'gods'? What had compelled them to take the risk of being destroyed by the very same superior beings who had allegedly given them life and who could just as easily take it away from them? Had it been their own survival instinct… or something else, something buried deep inside of them millennia ago, instructing them to fight for their freedom so that they could, one day, fight for the freedom of others?

"I decided to take a risk myself and return to Atlantis. Of course, I did it after jumping to a point in time where no one would even care to remember Earth's original Stargate so that I could dial in from there. Once back in the city, I went through our entire database, searching for anything I could find about our first encounter, trying to find something that could lead me to the point of departure of your first ship. _Quest_, wasn't it? Anyway, after a few days of research, I finally found a record made by the Lanteans you met; it contained a lot of information they conducted shortly after you left Atlantis. Among other things, there was a small list of coordinates for your possible home galaxy, based on what they believed was your first entry vector into our galaxy, and one specific set of coordinates caught my attention. I guess you know why.

"Calibrating the Gate to reach that destination took some more doing, but finally, I was able to dial in successfully; I just hope I didn't use too much power in the process. I crossed over, and I found myself inside a magnificent structure, a hall which contained many more Stargates than I cared to count. They were really old, millions of years old, but still worked perfectly. Now, you should know that my short trip to the Ark was not without purpose; no, the reason I went there was because I needed to understand what you had done to the humans on Earth, and in order to do that, I needed to meet the one who had developed the genetic system you used on Earth's humans… someone you surely were acquainted with."

_I must say that when I heard this, I had to suppress the need to stop Janus from continuing his preposterous story any further, but I did not. I could not. What if he was being truthful? And his name—Janus—… I was certain I had heard it even before leaving our galaxy. I allowed him to continue._

"She was such a wonderful person! I had feared she would not believe me, but she listened carefully to everything I had to say, and she came to see it all as true. Of course, it took some convincing to make sure she would not alter the ongoing course of events, but we reached an agreement. I also reassured her that her efforts would not be in vain–at least not in our galaxy. Then, she asked for my help in creating something that would help her Reclaimers in the future: a smaller, handheld version of an already existing device which allowed tracking of every last piece of Forerunner technology, in real time."

_The _Janus_ Key! It had been created as an alternative for the Reclaimers, in case they were unable to find or understand the original tracking device which relied on accessing the Domain to perform the same function. The Librarian had told me she had constructed the Key on her own, and its existence was a secret between her and me; no one else could possibly know about that. It had to be true!_

"The Librarian and I worked together side by side for over a year until we finally got it right. During that time, I learned a lot about her work on _geas_, and I told her everything I could about my kind and about those who would secede us. Finally, just before returning to Earth, I made her promise me she would never reveal my involvement in her project or my presence in the Ark, so as to avoid any change in the current timeline. She agreed, and we parted ways. Obviously, she kept her promise, or you would already know about all this.

"Didact, the reason why I have told you all this is because I wanted you to understand why I am backing you—the reason why I am trying to get you into our Alliance. The humans on Earth were still so primitive by the time we returned from Atlantis, they would have never defied those who they believed were their gods. They would have remained slaves forever, had it not been for your intervention in their evolution. I believe your work, the work of your wife, and the work of your people, is what will ultimately help them be free. Their _geas_ will guide them, tell them to stand against those who would oppress them. And one day, they will take our place and continue the work we have done, learn from our mistakes, and set things right in every galaxy they set foot on.

"Still, for this to happen, they will need a fighting chance. And though nothing I learned in my journey through time may indicate otherwise, I do believe they may need some help. Our help… and yours as well. We must give them that fighting chance, Didact. It is the least we can do for them."

_He concluded with this, and without another word, he left—and as he did, he smiled._

* * *

**_91,500 years after the Halo Event_**

**_17 days into Second Trial_**

_We had finally been recalled to the arena. All three races of the Alliance had finished deliberating, and now we would know their decision._

_Things had been different today. Instead of being transported without warning like in previous occasions, every Furling who was present the first day of this trial had walked all the way from his or her respective home city to get here. The air felt lighter now, all the tension felt before now gone. I could even see some degree of joy or confidence in some faces._

_Personally, I felt like I had been infused with a new purpose. The conversation Janus had with me a few days ago gave me hope for the future. Even if our sentence was not revoked and we were not accepted into the Alliance, I could live the remainder of my days knowing our work was not for nothing. Thus, as I walked to the center of the arena to stand once more before the judges, I was at peace._

_Janus had no need to call for order; everyone was silent. Expectation was high for everyone, even if there was no fear. His expression was even more confident than that of anyone else._

_"The time has arrived," he began. "You have seen the evidence. You have seen the truth. Now, we shall act upon it. As I speak for my people, I must ask this: is any Alteran here against the revocation of the sentence against the Furlings and their inclusion into our Alliance?" No one speaks, and after a long pause, he continued. "Representatives of the Asgard and the Nox, stand with me." Two of the judges rose from their seats; one Asgard at Janus' left, and one Nox at his right._

_Janus addressed the Asgard first. "Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. You stand here today as the voice of every member of your race. What decision have you reached?"_

_The large, black eyes of the rather small Asgard focused on me as he spoke. "The Furlings have proven to be both a menace to their enemies… and a benevolent, wise people," he said. "We would be honored to fight the Goa'uld with them by our side to set the humans free. The Asgard support the revocation of the sentence and the inclusion of the Furlings into our Alliance."_

_"Thank you, Thor," Janus said before addressing the Nox to his right. "Ariteaus, High Elder of the Nox. You stand here today as the voice of every member of your race. What decision have you reached?"_

_The Nox leader also looked into my eyes, but his gaze was even more penetrating than that of the Asgard leader. His expression remained calm, even favorable. "There is a reason why my kind procured to convince the Alliance Council not to condemn you to death the first time you were on trial," he said. "In spite of all your faults and errors, my ancestors saw potential in you, just as you saw potential in the human race. You have done even more than you could to atone for your sins, fighting against your old ways to achieve your own salvation, and you have become a greater people than before. This Alliance and this galaxy are in need of your knowledge and wisdom… and we would be honored to share ours with you. The Nox support the revocation of the sentence and the inclusion of the Furlings into our Alliance."_

_Janus smiled. "Thank you, Ariteaus." The rest of the judges rose just before the light of the Asgard transportation system enveloped the stone table and seats they were on. Just as quickly as they disappeared, another stone table and 12 seats to complement it appeared in the center of the arena. Ariteaus claimed the first of the four middle seats, leaving the second one unoccupied; Janus took the third middle seat, with Thor at his left. At both sides of them, the rest of the judges followed the same pattern of Nox, empty seat, Alteran, and Asgard._

_"IsoDidact," Janus said, now addressing me. "Master Guide of the Furlings. It is with great pride that I welcome you and your race into this Great Alliance. Now, choose wisely two of the leaders of your people and call them forth, that they may serve by your side as Councilors."_

Master Guide._ I fell to my knees in humbleness and gratitude, feeling honored by the title. "Thank you, Councilor Janus."_

_My eyes then swept the arena, looking for the most capable leaders. It did not take long to find them. "Light-of-Nascent-Stars and Bliss-from-Newborn-Life," I called out. Two Lifeworkers I had known since they were born less than a hundred years ago, they had continued the work of Chant-to-Green, trying to guide our kind along the path to Ascension. They would become great Councilors._

_Both Lifeworkers stood up, and the Asgard transporter snatched them from among the crowd. Once they were brought to my side, they assumed the same stance I had taken._

_"Master Guide and Councilors of the Furlings, come and take your rightful places," Janus said. And so we did. Standing tall yet humble, we walked to the table and took our seats… and everyone began cheering. The entire arena echoed with thunderous applause, laughter, and joy._

_Then, I stood again to address the crowd, who fell silent once more. "Never in my life have I felt the way I feel right now," I began. "This is an honor we do not deserve, granted to us by grace. Today, I want to thank you for this new opportunity, and I assure you that we will not betray your trust._

_"Now, as Master Guide of the Furlings, I would like to make my first proposal to this alliance," and here, I turned to see the rest of the councilors, who nodded and granted me permission. "I understand the purpose of this union is to share knowledge, wisdom, history; to search for more knowledge together, and to expand our understanding of the universe. While I believe this to be a noble goal, I also believe we need one more thing to give us a true sense of purpose._

_"We already know the Goa'uld now control the galaxy. Humanity, as well as many other races, is in peril. We have the power to stop them, but what is more, we have the responsibility to do so. However, and I think you will all agree with me, not all of us may live long enough to ensure that other race will not rise above the rest to rule with tyranny and conquer the less strong once we are gone. Thus, what we need to do—what we _must_ do—is to create a legacy for the future; a legacy consisting of all the knowledge and wisdom we collect, as well as our history, so that one day, one race may inherit it all._

_"But it cannot be just any race. It has to be one with the potential to overcome even what we have done by ourselves, and what we will do together; a race with an understanding of the importance of life and a sense of duty towards it. They must be capable of learning from what we have learned and done—both our greatest achievements and our worst mistakes—and act upon it wisely, improving upon those achievements, and correcting those mistakes._

_"In our Great Journey, we learned a great truth: there is only one race that possesses all these characteristics. And I believe you will all agree with me._

_"So, may this Alliance of Four Great Races be driven by the purpose of protecting and preparing humanity for the responsibility they will inherit from us! May it grow and prosper and lay down a path for the Fifth Race that will succeed us! May we leave behind a legacy for the future generations of protectors and guardians!"_

_And once more, the crowd roared. I saw a look of agreement and approval in the councilors' faces… and an expression of glee in Janus' eyes._

* * *

**_93,000 years after the Halo Event_**

_It has been 1,500 years since our banishment was revoked. 1,500 years since we built together in our Furling homeworld the Legacy Capital of the Alliance, our meeting place and vault of collective knowledge. 1,500 years of war with the Goa'uld, of stopping them from expanding and conquering any further. We have tried to avoid any major collateral damage, as the parasites have already surrounded themselves with large numbers of a new 'form' of humans which they use as soldiers. They call them 'Jaffa', but they are still humans regardless, and we have made a vow not to involve them in this fight, even if the Goa'uld already have._

_It has also been 1,500 years since I last saw my friend Janus. 1,500 years since he revealed the truth to some Alterans who chose to follow in his steps and continue his work while he travels back and forth in time, trying to compensate for the genetic disaster the Goa'uld have caused. He believes that, since they have already influenced heavily in human history on Altera, the best course of action is to go back to the Ark, to the era when my wife was still working on _geas_, to include a marker that will help them develop a similar society in the equivalent region at Erde-Tyrene as they evolve—if our plan is to have both worlds evolve as similarly as possible._

_Janus promised our paths _would_ cross again in the future, and I am patiently waiting for him. _We_ are patiently waiting for him. But for now, some of his followers, along with some of my people, have devoted their time and resources in a new mission._

_Today, from this very planet in which we have been united, we launch _Discovery_._

_Millions of years ago, when the Alteran Empire was at its greatest moment, they launched an automated ship into space with the purpose of collecting knowledge of the universe. The original plan was to reach it via Stargate once it was far away enough, but it was forgotten after they began their research on Ascension. However, the records about the ship and its mission remained within the Lantean database, and someone thought about bringing this information back from Atlantis three thousand years ago._

_Recently, this record was found once more by one of the Alterans. His rediscovery led to the establishment of a coordinated effort between all the races of the Alliance to begin a new mission, similar to the one that began with _Destiny_ so many years ago, yet somewhat different. We believe the Fifth Race will, one day, complete _Destiny_'s mission, and so we will not try to reach it. Instead, we have built a second _Destiny_-class ship which incorporates Alteran, Nox, Asgard, and Furling technology. Its purpose: to follow the path laid down before by _Destiny_ in the hopes of finding more advanced civilizations and helping establish new societies beyond our galaxies. And who knows? Maybe it will even find other humans who have evolved elsewhere and who may also have the potential to become part of the Fifth Race._

Discovery_'s crew will be comprised of a large number of Alterans and Furlings only, since the Asgard believe they should all remain behind to keep fighting the Goa'uld, and the Nox are content with staying on their planet. Each and every one of the crewmembers understands the risks of this mission… and the fact that there is only one path this ship will take: the one laid out for _Destiny_. They—and their descendants—will never come back, but they will have an opportunity to make an impact in many other cultures all over the universe. And they believe there is no nobler purpose than that._

_Now, as I stand at the bridge of the _Biliskner_—Thor's flagship—, watching as my people and my allies leave for places unknown aboard the greatest ship built by the greatest races in this galaxy, I can only hope that the very spirit of the Furling society that my descendants have established will not be overcome by our former nature, so that our legacy may become a beacon of peace and hope for many more races in this vast universe._

* * *

**_97,000 years after the Halo Event_**

_If only the Alterans who first condemned us were still alive to see this…_

_I am looking outside the transparent walls of _Quest_'s command center into the surface of a beautiful, peaceful planet. Its landmasses are covered in the deepest greenery, providing shelter for all of its inhabitants. Its blue oceans reflect the light of its sun in the most beautiful way possible, shining brighter than all the other planets in this system. Its atmosphere is filled with life, with joy, with freedom._

_This is the humans' homeworld._

_This is Altera._

_Ra, the Supreme System Lord of the Goa'uld, once ruled over this world and from this world. For thousands of years, its inhabitants have known no other thing other than war, destruction, and death. Until now._

_The humans finally rose against their masters, just as Janus said they would. Their desire for freedom has motivated them to act, and they have overthrown their gods. They have left an existence of servitude and slavery behind and risked everything—even their own lives—to take control of their own destinies. And they have overcome._

_Now, we have to do our part to prevent Ra from returning to reclaim his former domain. My people, along with the Asgard, have been able to maintain the Goa'uld occupied for a long time, and now we will force them to stay away from it forever. If we have to fight harder and show more determination in our goals, so shall it be. But we swore to protect the humans, and that is what we will do._

_I still wish we could do more to help the rest of those who have not had the same fortune._

_For now, all we can do is to offer them another means of escape. The very same means the Alterans have used by now. Ascension._

_My people have found a secluded world in which to build a utopia, both for us, and for anyone who may be seeking the way to find enlightenment, to free themselves from the burden of slavery, to ascend. Most Furlings have left our homeworld and moved there to live out the remainder of their lives, except for those like me who still feel obliged to do more for this galaxy before moving on to the next plain of existence. Both the planet and its moon are beautiful indeed, much like Altera. A perfect place to leave everything else behind—all our sins, our sorrow, our pain. Here, our race will reach the final step in our redeeming journey which began a hundred thousand years ago._

_We have sent out among the stars an invitation to any who may want to achieve the same goal, to come and join us in the path. Here, safe from the Goa'uld threat, they will be able to become one with the universe. Here, they will find solace from the suffering they may have experienced._

_Here, one day, I too will have the honor of joining them._

_But for now, there is still much to do._

* * *

**_100,500 years after the Halo Event_**

_27. That is the number of planets the Asgard have been able to place under their protection so far._

_After 5,500 years of continuous war, the Goa'uld finally begged for a truce shortly after losing Altera. It is a misfortune the Alliance did not last that long… but with the Alterans gone, and my people following closely behind them, only the Nox and the Asgard remain. And the pacifist Nox had no intention of changing their ways to enforce any kind of agreement with the parasites. Thankfully, the Asgard had both the power and the will to complete the vision of the Alliance. And up to this day, they have done more than what we could ever hope for._

_I am all that remains of the Furling race in this galaxy, an old monument to my people's sins… and to their quest for atonement. And soon enough, I too will be gone._

_As if the Mantle could be any kinder, my dear friend Janus has chosen this time to return. He looks twenty years older, though I ignore whether if as a result of aging or of years of working without rest. I saw him again first on Utopia, just as I was preparing to leave everything behind to begin my own journey to Ascension. He was already there, standing at the entrance to the citadel, waiting for me; he was not alone, either. There was an old, long-haired bearded man with him, dressed in a white robe and with the strangest headdress I had ever seen._

_"I imagine it has been a very long time for you, Didact," were his first words to me._

_"It has," I replied, not as surprised to see him as I was glad. I embraced him, pleased to finally know he was still alive and well. Then, I turned to see the old man. "Who is your companion?"_

_Janus looked at me. "You really don't remember him?"_

Remember?_ I gazed upon the man again, trying to recognize him. I could not, and I told Janus so._

_"My dear friend," he replied, "this is the man who condemned you ten thousand years ago."_

_My eyes widen at this. I turn to see the man again… and _now_ I remember._

_"Moros," I call him, not a tone of rancor in my voice._

_"In another life, yes," he replies. "Now, I am known as Myrddin."_

_"Myrddin," I repeat. I try in my mind to understand his presence here. Janus had told me Moros had joined the ranks of the Ascended long ago. How could it be that he was back? And why?_

_"Yes," he replied again. "I have returned to seek your help."_

_"My help?" I repeated in disbelief._

_"Yes. I have been watching you for a long time, and if there is anyone who can help me, it is you."_

_"A new threat has arisen," Janus said, not even allowing me to comprehend what 'Myrddin' had told me. "If we don't act soon, all we have achieved will be lost."_

_They told me of a faction of Alterans from their original home galaxy who called themselves the Ori; a group that, long ago, had tried to destroy their brothers out of a religious fanaticism, and who had also learned how to ascend and exploit lesser beings in their galaxy to absorb energy from them. They also told me that the Ascended Alterans had been using their collective power to shield the existence of this galaxy from the Ori, but that Myrddin believed in taking preventive measures in case of failure._

_"Myrddin wants to construct a device capable of neutralizing Ascended beings, and the only way he could do so was to descend back into human form. But he still requires our assistance," Janus told me._

_"I have to admit, Didact," Myrddin said, "that you inspired me to do this. You proved me wrong a long time ago, even after I had left this plain of existence. You still have resources I need to build this device, resources I would otherwise take long to find. There are planets under your protection, uninhabited planets which I could use to conduct my research, and to which I would like to take some small human populations. I promise you, I would not be asking for this if it were not such a pressing matter."_

_"I know," I replied sincerely. "And you don't have to feel the need to try and convince me like that just because you condemned my race a long time ago to a life of banishment. Trust me, I hold no resentment towards you. I believe in you, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to aid you."_

_"Even if it cost you Ascension?" Myrddin queries. "For you must know this: the other Ascended Alterans have strict rules of non-interference with the lower planes, rules to which even your Ascended compatriots have been forced to abide to. My presence here is in direct violation of those rules, and if you help me, the others may not look so kindly on it, and they may even prevent you from joining them as punishment for helping me. After all, not all of them approve of your continuous 'meddling' with the affairs of this galaxy. In fact, I have to admit I was surprised that they allowed the other Furlings to ascend at all."_

_This makes doubt for a moment. After all I have done, after all I have waited to ascend… but a sense of duty prevails. "I will help you, no matter what the cost may be."_

_Myrddin did not smile, but he gave me a grateful look that weighed more than words could do._

_The last few days have been quite tiresome, as we have been moving some humans from Altera to some of the planets I gave him, taking them aboard _Quest_—my old, sturdy ship—to transport them to their new homes. He has built another device which will help him conceal his research from the other Ascended beings. Our work is so taxing it had made me forget about the Goa'uld for a while. That is, until today, when Thor informed me of yet another planet brought into the treaty._

_I just hope my aging body will be able to endure just a while longer._

* * *

**_100,500 years after the Halo Event_**

**_One year after the return of Moros_**

_I have done all I can. For one hundred thousand years, I have fought and worked for the greater good, always trying to uphold the Mantle. I failed to do so many times, but I kept trying. And now, at the very end of my days, I can say I made it._

_Janus and Myrddin, and even Thor, are standing by my bedside, not at Utopia, but at my own home, my small mountain dwelling which I built with my own hands ten thousand years ago. Both Alterans have been helping me achieve Ascension for the last few days, and now, I feel it within my grasp._

_The work we have done is nowhere near finished, but still they have taken the time to help me in my passage to eternity. I only regret not being able to complete the task we begun together, but I have faith in both of them. This is why I have entrusted Myrddin with _Quest_, so that he may still be able to use the ship for whatever purposes he sees fit._

_Janus and Thor have promised me to put together all my archives—everything I have recorded since we left the Ark—after I am gone. I have asked them to include all of it in our repository of knowledge, the one we created and stored at the Legacy Capital all those years ago. I am hoping that the Fifth Race will one day find it, and so, I wish to leave one final message for them—for you:_

_The universe is a vast place, filled with so many wonders and majesty. Do never believe yourselves to be greater than all that is in it. You are important, not because you are better, but because you have been chosen. Every single life is valuable, and it is up to you to keep it safe, to protect it. If you believe they are not worthy of such a thing, remember that the only reason _you_ are still alive today is because of the many generations of guardians from four different races who gave up their own lives so that you would have the chance of being born free._

_Do never use the authority the universe has placed upon you to rule over the weak. Always be humble, not self-serving but laying down your needs for others. Take our knowledge and wisdom, learn from us, and become all you were meant to be since the beginning of time. Let the ways of the Mantle guide you and your descendants, now and forever._

_You are the Fifth Race. Your role is clear. If there is any hope in preserving the future, it lies with you and your people._

_Do not fail us._

_ / / RECORD ENDS_

T: Thank you, Didact. Are you ready?

D: I am.

M: Good. Let us begin.

/ / WARNING – VITAL SIGNS IRREGULARITY DETECTED

J: My friend, there is something you should know.

D: And what is that?

J: The reason why it took me so long to return—why I spent so many years away—is because I could not return until I knew your wife would be safe.

D: What?

J: I helped your wife escape from the energies of the Halo Array. I designed a new ship that would allow me to go to Erde-Tyrene from the Ark, back in time, to rescue her.

D: My wife survived?

J: She did more than just survive. She spent her final years on Erde-Tyrene until she ascended.

D: She was there…

J: Sorry?

D: She was there. She has been there all the time. I have seen her many times in the last ten thousand years, but I thought I was just imagining it, evoking her image in times of distress.

/ / WARNING – VITALS SIGNS FADING

M: Janus is right. I have met her, you know.

D: Is that true?

M: Oh, she's incredibly stubborn! But, she is quite compassionate. There is just no way she can go without trying to help others.

D: My wife lives…

M: Yes, Didact. And she's waiting for you.

D: Yes… I can see her…

/ / WARNING – VITAL SIGNS TERMINATED

T: Hail, Master Guide of the Furlings.

M: Good luck, Didact.

/ / ERROR – NO ARMOR WEARER DETECTED

J: Goodbye, old friend.

/ / ARMOR DEACTIVATION

/ / ALL RECORDS CEASE

* * *

**A/N: This concludes the Furling/Great Alliance Arc.**

**Now, since it took me a _really_ long time to update, I feel an explanation is in order.**

**School and church aside, the last few weeks have been quite something. Truth be told, I couldn't wait to return to the main story Arc, so I began writing Chapter 10 before completing this one. The good news is, next chapter is almost finished, so I should be updating in just a few days (for real, this time).**

**Plus, I have been starting to settle down an idea that has been nagging in the back of my mind for some time now. As you may know, SGU is not coming back (at least as far as we know), and we're almost at the 'three year' deadline (remember, the crew placed in stasis while _Destiny_ crosses the void?). So, I had been thinking about making my own Season 3 which would follow up on the events of this story once it is finished, which means it would be a crossover between Halo and SGU. Just to find out what would have happened with the crew (and especially Eli).**

**I can't help but to think it's too early to do this, since this story is still developing and you still don't know how it will end, but I'm making a poll anyway 'cause I'd like to listen to your opinions. Should I make a Halo/SGU Season 3 or not? You can submit your choice by clicking on my profile page and answering a simple 'Yes' or 'No'; any further thoughts, please share them via nice Reviews/PMs. The poll will remain open 'till the end of the year (I know, it's a long time but, hey! Time flies!).  
**

**Finally, thank you all once more for your reviews! I hope you have enjoyed this small Arc as much as the Main Story Arc to which we will be returning to real soon! (Spoiler alert: upcoming major battle involving _Infinity_). See ya all on the next chapter!**


	10. Change of Plans

**A/N: Told you I'd have this one up soon! Enjoy!**

* * *

**In orbit above the Ark**

**USS ****_George Hammond_**

**2000 hrs. October 9, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

Daniel had been reading almost nonstop for the past three hours, after translating the text for the first five minutes before choosing to let the Asgard Computer Core do the rest of the job. He paused only on a few occasions to turn back to his four-people audience that soon had grown to a dozen people, measuring their reactions to certain revelations before resuming. No one had dared say a single word during this time, either out of curiosity of what might come next or because they were trying to take in everything they were hearing. And as Daniel finished reading the very last line of text from the Didact's record, silence finally settled upon the room. More than one had a blank stare by now.

Personally, Halsey was stunned, astounded, to say the least. She recalled how her life had changed the moment she had been face to face with the Librarian on Requiem. Then, months later, Major Sullivan had provided her with everything ONI had found so far about Forerunner history… and now, this record. At this point, all those things had come to shake and shatter everything she had once believed and taken by granted. How many of her actions had been preordained, not only by the Forerunners but also by this Alliance? How any decisions had she taken under the influence of a genetic marker—a _geas_—passed down through so many generations of humans before her?

How guilty could she truly be of all the crimes she had committed? Or was she guilty at all?

"Is that it?" McKay asked, breaking the silence and making Halsey snap out of her thoughts.

Everyone turned to see him. "What, you need more?" Mitchell asked incredulously.

"Well… no. It's just that… it looks like there are large gaps between records."

"So?" Mitchell asked.

"I mean… Daniel said he had found the _entire_ database of the Alliance, and that he had brought with him everything there was in it about the Furlings."

"And I did!" Daniel replied.

"Then where is the rest?!"

"I don't know!"

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?"

"Well, maybe they only left the most relevant records."

"A bunch of historical records is not as relevant as technological records!"

"What?! Rodney, have you never heard the phrase 'knowledge is power'?"

"Technological knowledge! How is a tale about something that happened thousands of years ago gonna help me against the Wraith?"

"The Wraith are not in Pegasus anymore, let alone the Milky Way!"

"Then another enemy!"

In spite of herself, Halsey would've kept watching in amusement this little childish feud between McKay and Daniel, had she not received in that moment a text message in her data pad. It read, 'AFN'.

Her face became white. She double-checked its origin to be sure it was what it meant. Along with the Sangheili fifth column, she had developed a number of code words for them to use only in certain situations, and this short set of letters was part of it. To anyone else who might have been eavesdropping into her comms channel, it would have appeared as meaningless gibberish. To her, it was an anagram of the word 'fan'—as in, 'it's hit the fan'.

They had been compromised.

She left the room quietly and went out to the corridor. One of the many advantages of her armor: while in disguise mode, just like it was now, she still could use her helmet's comms to establish a secure link with her people, and to anybody who might see, it would seem as if she was only staring at a random point on the floor or the wall.

An image appeared on the upper left corner of her HUD; it was Guko. "Talk to me," she said.

_"Shipmistress, we have intercepted a message from the Didact's Hand. Our movement has been exposed. Jul 'Mdama has already ordered the slaughter of many of our brothers and is hunting down the rest. The Forerunners are favoring _us_ at least, because it was one of ours who got the message and not one of those loyal to 'Mdama."_

_Furlings_, Halsey mentally corrected. "That won't last long. When 'Mdama gets no confirmation, he will keep sending the same message until one of his loyalists answers it. We can't risk any of them receiving it the next time. We need to make our move first."

Guko silently nodded. Her Elites would no doubt consider taking _Glorified Wisdom_ by force, even if they were outnumbered three to one. Such a thing had never stopped their race in the past, after all. However, she was not willing to lose even one of her followers. She would still need each and every one of them, which meant she would need to find a way to sneak them out of the Corvette. And she knew of the best way to do so.

"Stand by. I'm working on a viable solution," she said before killing her comm link and walking back to the Core Room. Daniel and McKay were still arguing, but Sam was just waiting patiently, as if giving them enough time to let them blow off some steam. "Colonel Carter," Halsey called out in a whisper from the room's threshold.

Sam turned and walked towards her. "Is there a problem, Doctor?" she asked.

"I'm afraid so. I've just received word from my ship. They… they've been attacked," Halsey lied. "An enemy squad managed to sneak aboard and have started to kill everyone in their path."

"Oh, God. Is there something we can do to help?"

"Perhaps. Can you bring my crew to this ship the same way you brought us from inside the Ark?"

"If you can get your people together in one single place, then yes, we can."

"Would you help us, then? Please?" Halsey's concern was genuine, but she still exaggerated her expression.

Sam did not answer right away, but after a few moments she just walked back inside the Core Room. "McKay, you know how to operate the Asgard beam transport from her, right?" she asked firmly and loudly, effectively terminating the discussion.

"Uh… yeah?" McKay replied, suddenly lost for words.

"Good. Dr. Halsey," Sam turned to her, "I need you to contact your crew. Tell them to find a section of the ship where they can all seal themselves into. And tell them we need their ship's shields lowered before we can beam them aboard."

"The Corvette has no shields," Halsey replied.

"Oh. Well, that's great. Daniel, Teal'c, head to the starboard 302 Bay. Doctor, you're with me!" Sam was already sprinting down the corridor as she spoke that last sentence. Daniel also began running to his destination while Halsey tried to keep pace with Sam, and as she trotted behind her, she reopened her comm link.

"Guko, listen to me very carefully," she said. "Gather our people, fall back to the brig where we're keeping the Spartan and the ONI agent without making it too obvious, lock the room, and wait there for further instructions."

_"As you command, Shipmistress."_

On the way to the bridge, she ran into Edo and a pair of other Elites. "Shipmistress, we've been alerted. What will you have us do?" Edo asked.

"Get to the starboard fighter bay; make sure our people arrive safely," Halsey replied. The Elites departed, and she resumed her race to the bridge.

By the time Halsey got there, Sam was already at the command chair. "Doctor, our scans show no signs of a ship on the surface of the Ark, but we _are_ reading several life signs at the same location Colonel Mitchell and Dr. McKay were at when we beamed them aboard."

"The Corvette is cloaked, so your sensors would not pick it. In fact, I am surprised you can detect life signs at all. What are you seeing?"

"Here, let me show you," Sam said, motioning forward with her head. Halsey turned to see the _Hammond_ was now facing the Ark, and from a close distance too. A tactical image appeared at the center window, overlaying several icons on to the region where _Glorified Wisdom_ would be. There were several scattered dots at what Halsey knew was the forward section of the Corvette, as well as a cluster of similar dots at the location she had provided her Sangheili.

"There they are," Halsey said, pointing at the cluster of dots.

"Are you absolutely certain, Doctor?"

"100 percent."

Sam pressed a button on her chair. "Rodney, we've located them. You ready?"

_"In a second!"_ was McKay's answer.

Halsey did not wait. She began running again, heading this time for the 302 bay. It was well over a second before she heard Daniel's voice on the ship wide comm. _"We got 'em!"_

As she entered the fighter bay where Daniel and Teal'c were already waiting, she saw all of her Elites safe and sound, as well as her two unconscious prisoners behind them. Needless to say, Daniel was staring at Palmer and Sullivan with a wondering look. She would find a way to explain that in time. Halsey walked towards Guko. "What's the situation?" she asked him.

"'Mdama has known about us all along. He gave the order to 'cleanse his Covenant of all unbelievers' shortly after we arrived here."

"What? How do you know that?"

"_Luminous Truth_ contacted us shortly after we intercepted the message from 'Mdama. They apprised us about everything."

"_Luminous Truth_? Is that the abandoned damaged cruiser you found orbiting the remains of Joyous Exultation?"

"Yes, Shipmistress. It has been answering distress calls on various locations and rescuing survivors from the massacre."

"Is it repaired already?"

"Shields are barely working and it has no weapons capabilities whatsoever, but it is fully Slipspace capable and life support is entirely functional. It rescued the last group nine days ago and set course for the Ark. They should be here in less than two days?"

"Two days?" Halsey repeated in disbelief. "How?"

"The crew was able to modify the Slipspace drive before 'Mdama gave the death order. Instead of making a single continuous jump, it allows for smaller jumps which still cover greater distances than most other ships, including _Pious Inquisitor_."

Despite the small bit of good news, Halsey still couldn't feel relieved. The day before, she had felt with enough luck after beating 'Mdama in his own game. Now she realized he had always been in control, toying with her. He probably had sent her to the Ark to get rid of her while he exterminated the 'unbelievers'. Those three cruisers he had sent to 'support her', the ones _Infinity_ had destroyed? It was more than likely he had actually sent them to capture or kill her as well. The spy he had planted aboard her ship may just have been a backup plan. She would put nothing past 'Mdama at this point. For all she knew, he could have an entire assault fleet just waiting at her proverbial doorstep, and even if _Luminous Truth_ managed to overrun it, her people would have a hard time escaping from it after rescuing her—if the Corvette didn't pursue them first.

And then, there was the _Infinity_. Halsey had hoped the crew of _Glorified Wisdom_ would either flee the Ark or risk exposing themselves to the UNSC's most powerful ship once they realized she was gone. She would have found a way to further convince SG-1 to help her return to her own. The fact that a relief cruiser was on its way to rescue her and her crew changed everything. There was no way _Infinity_ wouldn't fire upon an enemy _CCS_-class battleship coming out of Slipspace, just like it had done with the other three, even if it belonged to a different faction than the one 'Mdama commanded. Then again, they would still destroy that cruiser if they knew who it belonged to—especially if they knew who it belonged to.

Her luck had finally run out.

_No. We make our own luck._

There _was_ a way to take _Infinity_ out of the equation. This ship she was standing on, small as it was, carried a lot of tactically useful tech. From what Sam had told her, _Hammond_ possessed shields far more resilient than anything the UNSC had ever seen or even developed, a cloak way more advanced than any active camouflage she knew of, and a faster-than-light drive capable of traversing the void between two galaxies two and a half million light years apart in approximately the same time it took the fastest ship in this galaxy—affiliation aside—to travel from Earth to Reach. Surely, it would also have some offensive capabilities, even if Sam had failed to mention them. But convincing her of rescuing her Elites and tricking her into firing upon a UNSC ship were two different things. So, if Halsey wanted to use _Hammond_'s weapons to neutralize _Infinity_, there was only one choice left.

Halsey turned to look Daniel, then Sam who had just entered the massive fighter bay. She had earned their trust, but right now, it was just not enough.

_Forgive me._

* * *

**In orbit above the Ark**

**UNSC ****_Infinity_**

**2030 hrs. October 9, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

_Gotcha_, Roland thought.

After what he had felt as three tiresome years of tracking and pinpointing, the mystery ship—it _was_ a ship, and nothing could convince him otherwise now—had finally made a mistake. _Infinity_'s sensors had just picked yet another weird signature leaving the Ark and heading into seemingly empty space. Upon closer inspection, Roland had just realized that it was both an energy signature _and_ a matter stream of some sort, which in turn suggested the object he was tracking possessed some kind of teleportation capabilities, again suggesting the presence of intelligent life.

_Well, not so intelligent if they can't conceal something like this from me._

In a matter of milliseconds—for a change, at last—Roland had managed to locate the exact coordinates of the matter stream's destination. Further calibration of _Infinity_'s sensors had allowed him to confirm the presence of the intermittent energy signature that had him obsessed by now. It was time to clarify a few things.

"Captain Lasky!" he said with an exited tone, appearing through the holo-projector at the captain's quarters, "I've found them!"

Through the ship's internal sensors, Roland noticed the captain's heart rate and adrenaline production had spiked for a split-second as he had appeared in front of him—in other words, he had startled Captain Lasky. He hadn't expressed it, though, and his vital signs had returned to normal for a moment there, probably until he realized the meaning of what he had just heard, at which point he jumped from his chair and virtually flew to the bridge, arriving there in record time. "Are you absolutely sure of it, Roland?" he asked as soon as he was no less than three inches from the viewport, his eyes scanning the space above the Ark.

"Positive, Captain," Roland answered, appearing this time at the holotable. "May I suggest we get close, broadcast an all-frequency hail, see what happens next?"

"Yes," Captain Lasky replied without hesitation. "Transmit the coordinates to Lieutenant James and get that hail ready."

"Do you want it to be friendly, hostile, or somewhere between?" Roland asked with a smirk on his face.

The captain took a few moments before answering, "Let's take a neutral approach, just in case. We still don't know what we're dealing with here."

Thankfully, Captain Lasky still had full confidence in Roland's common sense. In half the time it had taken Lieutenant James to steer _Infinity_, he had finished prepping the message. Now all he had to do was to wait… and wait… and wait. Even though _Infinity_ was faster than her size suggested, to an AI like him—especially to _him_—it wasn't just fast enough. He tried to keep his 'mind' busy by reading, analyzing, and classifying the sensor data the ship collected as it went. He also tried to make heads and tails of what few data he had acquired before the other ship had disappeared. Best he could tell, it had to be no bigger than a _Paris_-class frigate, which meant it would possibly have limited firepower capabilities compared to _Infinity_. If its occupants were indeed hostile, they would either have to have something better than anything the UNSC had created or found in the galaxy, both offensively and defensively speaking, or turn tail and run to avoid being blasted into oblivion.

After a while, _Infinity_ came in range to transmit the message to the coordinates Roland had provided. Captain Lasky turned and simply nodded to him, and he broadcasted the hail using a synthesized version of the captain's voice, allowing it to be heard in the bridge as well. "Attention, unknown vessel. This is Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC ship _Infinity_. We are aware of your presence in this sector, and you should know that six of our people have recently disappeared under mysterious circumstances. If you have nothing to do with this, then we can assure you that there is nothing to fear and no need to remain hidden. We have no intentions to harm you. But if you _are_ responsible for this, then _know_ that we will not tolerate it. If you _do_ have our people prisoners, we demand that you return them to us immediately. Failure to do so or to answer this message will be considered as an act of war and we will be forced to attack you. We have the capability to destroy you and will _not_ hesitate to make use of everything we have to ensure it."

Roland assumed that whoever was on that ship would not know how to speak English but would be advanced enough to have something that would allow for translation, and so he believed the reply would take some time. Therefore, when he heard a feminine voice in the E-band, he felt surprised at first… and then, he felt the AI equivalent of a shiver running down his spine. _"I'd like to see you try,"_ the all too eerily familiar voice said.

The captain's face became grim as he also recognized the voice. "Doctor Halsey?"

_"Captain, I must say I was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten about Commander Palmer and Major Sullivan."_

"Doctor, you'd better not be behind this or—"

_"Or what, Captain? You will use a barrage of Archer, Howler, and Rapier missiles to attack me, without even knowing _exactly_ where I am?"_

"It doesn't have to be this way, Doctor Halsey. Give us our people back and surrender peacefully—"

_"So you can finish what you we not able to on Requiem? I'm afraid it's a little too late for that."_

"Please, don't force my hand. I don't want to kill you, but I _will_ do everything in my power to stop you from doing any more harm in the name of the Covenant."

_"Look, Captain Lasky. I really don't have time to argue with you, so I'll just make it simple. A Covenant cruiser is on its way here to take me elsewhere, and I would hate to see it destroyed the same way you took down the other three cruisers. If you promise to stay away from it, I will let you live. But if you interfere, I will have no choice but to neutralize you."_

"I'm sorry?" Roland broke in. "You aren't seriously implying that you have a ship better than ours, are you?"

_"Why don't you take a look for yourselves?"_ was the answer. And for the first time in hours, the sensors finally picked up something tangible, measurable—definitely a ship, and definitely small, even if it actually was just slightly larger than a _Paris_-class frigate. In fact, it looked like a flattened version of a _Paris_-class frigate, as if it had been under a steamroller, one of titanic proportions. The energy signature it emitted became constant, paired with yet another one which went off the charts. Whatever it was, it obviously could provide the smaller vessel with an obscene amount of power.

How had she gotten her hands on something like this? And more important, where?

He decided to zoom in on the 'frigate' with one of the hi-res cameras he already had pointed at it to see if there could be something in the outer hull that could help him guess its origin. Much to his surprise, the side of the ship had the acronym 'U.S.A.F.' painted on it. He knew those letters meant 'United States Air Force', at least in the English language. The design and the fact that Dr. Halsey was the one piloting it confirmed it _was_ human built. But did those letters mean something else? Otherwise, why use an acronym that hadn't been seen for centuries?

"Roland," Captain Lasky said, "is that ship big enough to withstand a shot from a Mass Driver?"

"It's possible, Captain."

"Are we in firing range?"

"Not really. But I might be able to get a firing solution from this distance." He was being politely humble, but in reality he _could_, without a shadow of doubt, fire a Mass Driver from ever farther away. And to be honest, he was half expecting Captain Lasky would give him the chance to do so.

"You have the forward array," the captain said, much to Roland's pleasure. "Fire a couple of warning shots."

Roland disappeared from the bridge without another word. He acquired his target as fast as he could, and fired. Two small MAC slugs crossed the void and flew to the side of his target, almost grazing it, in mere fractions of a second. He returned to the bridge just as the captain began speaking again to Doctor Halsey.

"I won't ask again, Doctor Halsey. Surrender now, or you will be destroyed."

There was a moment of silence before Halsey's response. _"So be it."_

The smaller ship began moving towards them. The captain was beginning to turn to Roland, but he could already guess what he would ask for. He disappeared again from the bridge and got to work on new firing solutions for all twelve fore Mass Drivers. Halsey's ship was starting to gain speed, but her course remained the same, which made his job easier. He first fired the two guns located at the top and bottom of the forward section of the hull respectively, aiming at the sides of the frigate, hoping that that would slow it down or even stop it dead in its tracks, since Spartan Palmer and Major Sullivan could be aboard it. From his perspective, the supersonic slugs looked like two pairs of slow-moving missiles, which streaked through space in a perfectly straight line towards their objective. They never reached it, though, as a silver-blue barrier of light prevented them from hitting the vessel.

_Shields._

"Roland, what the hell was that?" he could hear Captain Lasky say in the bridge.

"Energy shielding, Captain," Roland replied through the speakers, not even taking time to reappear in the room. He fired all eight remaining cannons at the now speeding ship. He felt both disappointed and worried when, after waiting again for the shots to reach their objective, the result was the same. All the while, he was taking readings to try and determine how much damage had the shots caused, even though he suspected whatever energy source that ship possessed would be pumping more than enough juice to keep that shield up. And true enough, he could confirm the Mass Drivers had caused virtually no damage.

"It's coming at us!" someone at the bridge shouted in terror.

"Everyone, brace for impact!" Captain Lasky ordered, knowing that _Infinity_'s own shields would not allow the enemy ship through. It didn't have to, though, as the vessel shot upwards at the very last second. That thing surely was nimble, more than its size suggested.

"What is she doing?" the captain asked. Roland wondered the same thing as he kept track of the frigate. He thought of firing a volley of missiles, but apparently Halsey had thought of that first, as this time her ship didn't maintain a straight course, instead flying in zigzag before making a U-turn at 50 kilometers of distance from _Infinity_. Now, the frigate was facing them from behind, and in an exceptional occasion, Roland felt absolutely confused. He didn't know what to do, since he had just realized he knew nothing about that ship, except for the fact that it seemed to be building up energy in four different sections of its outer hull, much in the same way Covenant ships—

_Oh, shit._

"Roland, is she trying to escape?"

"Negative, Captain," he replied, a tone of genuine dread in his voice. "I think she's planning on attacking us."

And he was proven right. He watched in fear through the aft cameras as one, then two, then four beams of light originating from the frigate streaked towards his ship. _Infinity_'s shield was able to hold off all four beams, but the strain was way too excessive and caused it to collapse violently. Roland quickly theorized that, if those beams had managed to drop the shield so quickly, they had to be a more powerful version of the Energy Projectors found on Covenant ships. Unlike the Covenant, though, the time between recharges seemed virtually nonexistent; just as quickly as the first beams had left Halsey's ship, another four were born and expelled from plasma cannons smaller than he thought possible for that kind of firepower. He felt useless and hopeless as the second salvo hit the engines and a terrible explosion rocked the entire ship, with enough force to cause several smaller explosions all over it, and also causing a lot of people to fall to the ground. Even at the bridge, sparks began flying everywhere, and many officers were thrown out of their chairs.

Roland immediately began running multiple diagnostics. Needless to say, the engines were first in a list of damaged systems, followed by power and life support failure on some decks, multiple hull breaches, and—much to his dismay—catastrophic failure in the weapons control system. Several point-defense cannons and Mass Drivers were gone, their power conduits overloaded, and those that remained, along with all missile pods, were of no use anymore, at least not until he managed to repair the control system—if such a thing was possible, all things considered. Among the less critical systems flashing red, bulkhead control for all frigate bays was out as well, meaning the ten-frigate compliment _Infinity_ carried would be stuck inside the ship for a long time. Most sensors were down, but fortunately they were not damaged beyond repair, though it would take Roland some time to get them back online.

The Slipspace drive had, amazingly, remained unaffected, but without engines, it was no good. Still, that the whole ship had not been blown to kingdom come with all that raw energy hitting the single biggest piece of equipment _Infinity_ possessed was nothing short of a miracle—which, for a pragmatist artificial construct such as Roland, was just like some other religious mumbo-jumbo. And yet…

As for Halsey…

Somehow, one of the aft cameras had survived the massacre. Through it, he saw her ship make another U-turn just before getting too close to _Infinity_, this time heading for the far end of the Ark. Just before it became invisible again, she had sent a final transmission in text form. Roland didn't care to read it at the moment, focusing all his cycles in making sure everyone aboard was fine.

"Report!" Captain Lasky demanded..

Roland reappeared at the bridge and replied, "In a nutshell, we're screwed, but we could be worse."

"Meaning?" the captain asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We're sitting ducks right now, Captain. That explosion was the engines being blown to smithereens. Secondary explosions have wreaked havoc all over the place. Several critical systems are completely down, and we have some sections exposed to space. I'm trying to seal them off right now."

"Casualties?"

Roland made some rough estimates. Some people had been killed in the explosion, while others who were on the now breached sections had just disappeared from inside the ship, possibly thrown out into space. "About 1000 injuries; no less than 500 casualties," was Roland's answer.

The captain's expression sobered. "What about Halsey?"

"She just left," the AI replied. "And she left a note behind."

As the captain began rising from the floor, Roland allowed Halsey's final message to appear at the holotable. It read, _"Next time, I won't be so merciful."_

* * *

**In orbit above the Ark**

**USS ****_George Hammond_**

**2043 hrs. October 9, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

It had all happened so fast. First, she had given her people the order to take the ship. Then, she had attacked _Infinity_. And now, she was leading the _Hammond_ as far away from the carnage as she could. All in a flash.

Her mind was still trying to process what had just happened when Guko entered the bridge. "Shipmistress, we have finished securing the human vessel. Major 'Nodam is escorting the last prisoners to the fighter bay. No casualties reported."

"Thank you, Guko," she replied. Truth be told, had it not been for those Zat guns, there _would_ have been casualties during the short struggle that ensued before _Infinity_'s approach. She took a moment to relive in her mind the moment when she had dropped her disguise, activated her energy dagger, and taken Daniel hostage at the fighter bay…

_"Catherine, what are you doing?" Daniel asked rather nervously while she was holding her plasma blade to his neck. Teal'c and Sam had their guns raised and trained at her by now, while the Elites had also drawn their plasma weapons._

_"Colonel, if you'd be so kind as to take me to the bridge without making much of a fuss, please?" Halsey said, ignoring Daniel's question._

_"Doctor," Sam said, "put that down."_

_"Colonel, I don't want a bloodbath here. Do you?"_

_"Then let Daniel go. I don't know why you're doing this, but we can sort this out."_

_"There's nothing to sort out. I need your ship, you'll lend it to me, end of story. I'll let Daniel go once you've promised to let me use the _Hammond_ for a while without interfering."_

_"Shipmistress," Edo said, armed with a carbine, "I have a clear shot at the one with the forehead mark."_

_"Do not shoot!" Halsey ordered. "Do not even return fire. You know what to do if they shoot first, but whatever happens, do _not_ open fire." She hoped he'd gotten the message._

_"Doctor, let Daniel go," Sam demanded with a firm voice this time. When Halsey didn't comply, and apparently confident of the order she had just given the Elites, she nodded at Teal'c, who fired his weapon—an odd-shaped device which resembled a snake—at her. The energy beam produced by the weapon hit Daniel first before transferring to her, but while it caused him to convulse and fall to the ground, she remained unaffected; her shield had borne the brunt of it._

_At this point, Edo engaged his active camouflage, and the rest of the Sangheili followed suit. Less than three seconds later, both the Jaffa and the Colonel had lost their weapons and been subdued by invisible forces. Their arms being held behind their backs, Teal'c and Sam's defying expressions remained, and they kept struggling to free themselves from the Elites' grip._

_Edo reappeared at Halsey's side holding in his hand the alien gun. She took it and pressed the button on the side, which 'deployed' the barrel; she pressed it again, and the weapon folded back. She looked Sam directly to the eyes, aimed at her, and said, "It would have been easier if you had just played along." But before she could fire, Daniel managed to grab her leg, not with enough force to make her tumble, but enough to call for her attention._

_"Don't shoot it twice!" he managed to say with whatever strength he had left and a desperate look in his face. Halsey could only assume he had tried to warn her about the weapon. She felt tempted to do the opposite and test it on one of her new prisoners, or maybe even with Sullivan or Palmer, but she didn't. She couldn't._

_"Why can't I shoot twice?" Halsey asked Sam._

_"Because two consecutive shots from a Zat are always lethal," she replied. "A single shot is enough to stun most people—except you, apparently."_

_"My energy shield protected me, although I'll admit this may have permanently damaged it," Halsey said, noticing that the recharge bar in her HUD had not been restored. "I'm sorry it has to come to this, Colonel," she continued, lowering her voice. "It would have been easier if you had just ceded command to me."_

_She shot Sam first, then Teal'c, and both fell. The Sangheili holding them were smart enough to let go at the very moment she fired the gun. Halsey handed the weapon back to Edo. "You've been walking all over the ship for the last few hours. Have you seen any armory?" she asked._

_"Several, Shipmistress," the Elite replied._

_"Good. Take a SpecOps team to one of them. If there is anyone guarding it, use this gun to incapacitate them, but as these people said, don't shoot twice at the same target. Break into the armory, arm yourselves, and take enough for the rest of us. We're taking this ship for ourselves until _Luminous Truth_ arrives, and I don't want any casualties in the process. Understood?"_

_Edo nodded and took the 'Zat'. He reengaged his camo, and left._

"Orbit established, Shipmistress", a voice to her left brought her back from the depth of her thoughts. "_Luminous Truth_ should return to normal space near these coordinates." Of course, 'orbit' was a misnomer, but then again, there was still no proper term for an artificial object achieving a stable position above a _flat_ world like the Ark.

"Thank you, Nal," Halsey replied, acknowledging her protégée. One of the scarcely few Sangheili youngsters currently serving among the Covenant ranks, and one of the even fewer Sangheili who had some degree of knowledge on human technology, Nal 'Izan was a jewel. The first time Halsey met her, she was baffled. She had always believed Sangheili females were never allowed to fight alongside the men. But Nal was a good fighter and knew how to use a weapon. It was thanks to her that she learned that all females of her race knew how to defend themselves, since they were trained to protect their keeps if war ever erupted on Sanghelios.

Halsey also witnessed the ultimate example of the Elite equivalent of a rebellious teenager. Nal had known what a sense of duty towards her people was since a very young age, and she had always wanted to contribute in the front lines rather than to remain on her homeworld and take care of a keep. She was brave and smart, and she believed she could make a difference, law and tradition notwithstanding. She had actually found a way to leave Sanghelios undetected by sneaking aboard one of the Arbiter's cruisers leaving the planet to face 'Mdama in battle. The cruiser had been defeated and boarded, yet she still had been able to evade capture for a while… until Edo 'Nodam found her hiding inside one of the Huragok service tunnels. Had it been one of the Didact's Hand's henchmen, she would've probably been taken prisoner at best, executed at worse, for breaking the most honorable ways of the Sangheili, but Edo saw her value from the very first moment. He had taken her to the _Glorified Wisdom_ shortly before the Corvette had been given to Halsey, and soon thereafter, Nal proved her worth.

Halsey may have been the one to design her prosthesis and armor, but it had been Nal who had operated the medical equipment—human equipment—that had fused the robotic arm to her body, and it had been Nal who had helped build the armor from scratch. And now, she had been the one to fly the _Hammond_ with such grace and agility, like it were a Seraph. She had been the one to fire _Hammond_'s weapons—at Halsey's order, of course—with such accuracy, using a human system which had no resemblance to anything the UNSC had ever developed.

The difference between geniuses and prodigies: geniuses may be extremely smart and abound in every age, but it is prodigies who establish turning points in history, even though they are born only once every few hundred years. Prodigies come on all ages and sizes, and they transcend the barriers of sexes, castes, and social status. This was true for humans, but Nal was living proof that the same thing was true about the Sangheili. She was easily a Sangheili version of Sam, even if she hadn't learned yet all the theory behind the technical stuff she liked to work on.

_Is it possible there is an actual alternate universe in which humans and Sangheili have never been enemies?_ Halsey couldn't help but wonder. Imagine all the achievements both races could have accomplished together, had it not been for the Covenant!

She pushed the thought from her mind and focused back on the task at hand. For the moment, they were safe, but they needed a way off this ship. A dropship was out of the question, since it would take more time to ferry her entire crew from the _Hammond_ to _Luminous Truth_ than she would like to spend. The 'beaming technology' of this ship could provide her with a quick escape, but she needed to understand it first.

"Guko, stay here and keep the bridge safe. Nal, come with me," Halsey said. The young Elite rose from the chair, tall but not as much as the rest. She was less beefy than the others, too, and her mandibles were less protruding, but she still looked menacing to anyone who didn't know about those subtle differences between males and females. Halsey rose up as well and began walking towards the Core Room, thinking about what their next move would be once they left the Ark. 'Mdama had already screwed all that she had planned to do after getting the second half of the Key. _Luminous Truth_ provided her with a good tactical advantage—if they found a way to repair it, of course—, and he still had no idea of her next destination, but he would undoubtedly have other ships on the lookout for her. Moving around the galaxy would become awfully dangerous from now on, and completing her true goal would be all but impossible. Unless…

As she approached the Core Room, an idea popped into her mind.

This ship could still provide her with the means of achieving what she had intended since that moment two months ago when, along with the coordinates leading to the Ark, her computer had registered a single line of text in Italian coming from the artifact. If only she managed to understand the Core, of course.

Halsey and Nal stood in front of the Asgard Computer Core. It was still active, as no-one had been able to turn it off when the Elites incapacitated the people inside the room. Halsey stared at the screen, mostly filled with runes she could not even begin to comprehend. _How ironic_, she thought. _I can perfectly understand a language completely unknown to mankind, and I don't know how to read a bunch of alien symbols so similar to those found on Earth itself._ Her area of expertise was different, of course, but she had had an opportunity to take an entire branch of language lessons back in college, and she had turned them down in favor of other subjects. How she wished she hadn't done so right now!

Nal had the very same look as Halsey. Language was everything, and without a grasp of this one, it would be really hard for her to have some progress. Halsey knew the screen _could_ display everything in English if the proper translation command was given, but first she had to know how to do so. One push of the wrong button, and she could blow the Core or wipe out its contents, at worst. And then, there was the matter of understanding the technology itself in order to find something that would suit her purposes.

"This is going to take a while," Halsey thought out loud.

* * *

**In orbit above the Ark**

**UNSC ****_Infinity_**

**2048 hrs. October 9, 2558 (Military Calendar)**

"Roland, there has to be a way!"

"I'm sorry, Captain. There isn't."

"You're telling me we're standing on the most powerful ship ever built by mankind, and we're no better now than sticks and stones?"

"A three-and-a-half-mile long stick, but that's a good way to put it," Roland replied.

"No." Lasky was not willing to admit defeat. "No, the Engineers—"

"I've already told you, Captain. The Huragok we have onboard may be able to repair all minor damage to the ship—weapons and bulkhead control systems, sensors, and the like—but they cannot fix what we don't have anymore. Now, if we can allow our frigates to escape and return to Earth to make a sit-rep, HIGHCOM might just as well give the order to disassemble the engines from _Eternity_ and send them here along with a nice support fleet to reassemble them and put them into our ship, but until then, we're staying right where we are."

Lasky stepped away from the holotable and began walking in circles. He felt helpless, desperate. Halsey had just killed five hundred of his people and injured twice as many. For the first time, he was regretting not allowing Palmer to complete her mission on Requiem. There _had_ to be something he could do to stop her, right here, right now. "How did she get her hands on something like that, anyway?" he thought out loud. "Insurrectionists? A stolen ONI secret project? What?"

"What bothers me even more is the fact that she was here, of all places," Roland said.

"Yeah; that, too. Palmer and Sully disappear, and Halsey appears shortly thereafter. There has to be a connection."

"I believe there is, but you're not going to like it, Captain Lasky."

Lasky stopped walking around the bridge and stared out the viewport. "Why is that, Roland?"

"Remember Major Sullivan's sudden escape from the ship?"

He remembered it clearly, and to be honest, he had already considered that possibility, even if he didn't want to.

"You think Sully…?" his voice trailed off. He couldn't bring himself to say that his friend could've become a traitor.

"It's possible."

_But why?_ Lasky thought. What could he possibly offer her and vice versa? For this trip, he had been just tagging along to make sure they got to the right place. No… he was just trying to tell himself _that_ to avoid admitting a terrible truth. ONI had sent Blue Team as escort for him. Why would they do that, unless they knew he would need it? And why would he need it, unless he was meeting with someone potentially dangerous? That could mean Sully had not been acting alone, but with ONI support. Hell, he might have been running an errand _for_ ONI, something so important they had retorted to asking for help from the most dangerous human who had defected to the Covenant.

Then he realized.

"Roland, remind me of something," Lasky said. "What happened to the artifact Spartan Thorne brought back from Requiem while looking for Halsey?"

"ONI confiscated it for study the moment we were back on Earth."

"Didn't Glassman say we just seemed to have half of it?"

Lasky saw in the window the reflection of Roland's hologram flickering for a second. "You think Major Sullivan was meeting Halsey because of that artifact?"

"Why else would he be? For that matter, why the Ark? Why not meet somewhere else? He told me it had taken ONI a long time to locate this place. Maybe they didn't locate it at all."

"Halsey could have provided the coordinates," Roland stated. "And they sent us here to make sure it was not a trap. Problem is, it seems it _was_."

"Then Halsey used ONI to get something she needed. Maybe the ship?"

"Captain, I must admit that the reason why I'm not as worried about that ship as I am of Halsey being here and taking it over, is because I don't think it was intended for her. I seriously doubt they—whoever 'they' are—were trying to help her. And I can assure you that there is no way that ship was built by us or anyone else that we know of."

"And that doesn't worry you?"

"No, because they may have gotten here by accident."

Roland was becoming way too cryptic as of lately, and Lasky was starting to feel irritated by it. "What do you mean by that?"

"That ship may look like it was constructed by humans, and it may even be so, but it was not constructed anywhere near _this_ galaxy."

"_This_ galaxy? You mean, they're from another galaxy?"

"Not exactly. Here, take a look at this."

Lasky walked away from the viewport and back to the holotable as Roland displayed a high-res image of the unknown ship, which he had tagged 'Frigate' for reasons that soon became obvious to him. It did look like a human-built ship, alright, from top to bottom, from bow to stern. It was very similar in size to a UNSC frigate. Even the letters on its front side looked like capital letters from the English alphabet. "Anything in particular you wanted me to see?" Lasky asked.

"I believe you already have, Captain," Roland replied, highlighting the same letters again. Upon reading them again, Lasky mentally kicked himself for skipping something as obvious as that.

"'U.S.A.F.' United States Air Force?"

"I couldn't believe it the first time, either. But it is the only thing that makes sense. The advanced technology, the similarities, even those anomalies I kept registering through the ship's sensors."

"What are you talking about now, Roland?" Lasky asked, finally annoyed.

"Ever heard about the multiverse theory?"

_Oh, boy. More science lessons_, Lasky thought. "Never in my life? Could you try to explain it in few words?"

"In a nutshell, that frigate may be from an alternate universe, a different version of the Milky Way we know so well, a place where we may have never found the Covenant and we were able to advance to unparalleled levels!"

Lasky took a moment to try to understand that. Those were few words, indeed, but he'd gotten the gist of it. "So, those are alternate versions of the humans who live in this galaxy, probably of people we know. And now they are victims of Halsey's actions, just like the rest of us."

"I'd prefer to think that. Otherwise, we have a new, powerful enemy in our hands who has allied with the worst gal in the universe."

"Either way, we have to get aboard that ship," Lasky said with conviction.

"Uh, Captain, there may be a slight problem with that. You see, that ship has some sort of active camo, and right now, it is rendering the frigate completely invisible. So, unless you have a way of boarding something we can't see…"

"Ship's sensors were able to detect it, were they not?"

"Barely. And those are gone for the time being."

"Get the Huragok to work on those as soon as they're done with bulkhead control systems. Forget about the weapons for now. As of this moment, this is our top priority. And recall Blue Team," Lasky concluded. "They are the only ones I trust to get this done right…" he paused, resigned to the fact that Halsey was as much of a threat as Jul 'Mdama himself. "And I think it's about time they know what happened to the woman who created them."

* * *

**Current location unknown; presumably in orbit above the Ark**

**USS ****_George Hammond_**

**1500 hrs. August 5, 2013**

Cam opened his eyes slowly. He felt dizzy, every bone and muscle in his body ached, his vision was blurry, and his ears were ringing. The all too familiar feeling of a Zat shot.

The last thing he remembered was seeing McKay working with the Asgard Core before he heard the weapon firing into the room. He never saw who pulled the trigger.

About a minute later, he began listening more clearly. Voices. Lots of voices. One of those was Sam's. He closed his eyes again and reopened them, trying to get his lacrimal gland to produce enough water to clean up his eyeballs. He tried to rise up, but his arms still were too weak, and he fell.

"Cam!" he heard Sam yell. Then he felt her arm around his as she helped him sit upright. He blinked once more, and everything became clearer. Now he could see he was inside the starboard 302 Bay, along with pretty much the rest of the crew. To his left, McKay was still unconscious. To his right, a man and a woman he had never seen before lay in the same state as Rodney.

He quickly deduced what had happened.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted that woman," he said hoarsely.

"We had no way of knowing," Sam replied, although Cam could detect a slight tone of regret in her words.

"Oh, I told you so. I said that woman reminded me of Linea, big time. Didn't I say that a couple of times?"

"Indeed." That was Teal'c behind him, his voice even deeper than usual. So, Sam, Teal'c, and him; three out of four. But where was Jackson?

Cam tried to stand up again, and he succeeded this time. He looked all over the place until he spotted Daniel behind an F-302, sitting against the wall with his head clasped in his palms. He tried to walk over there, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him; again, Sam's.

"Not now, Cam," she said. "He's pretty upset with all this."

"What exactly happened?" Cam asked.

"Halsey and her… crew took the ship," she replied.

"That much seems obvious," Cam said.

"She took Daniel hostage to try and force me to 'lend' it to her. I refused, Teal'c shot her, but she withstood the Zat."

Cam shot her a double-take. "She _withstood_ a shot from a Zat?"

"She was wearing some kind of armor, just like the other aliens. Her lab coat was a disguise; holographic, I think."

"I told you not to trust her," Cam repeated. "I told you she was dangerous. I tried to tell _everyone_ that she was a security risk for all of us!"

"Then you are smarter than you look," another voice broke into the conversation. Cam turned to see the unknown woman rising from the floor with her one arm. Despite the situation, Cam couldn't help but think she looked really hot in that… black swimsuit.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"_Infinity_ Commander Spartan Sarah Palmer," she replied in an all-too-formal military way, albeit without the salute.

"That's a long name," Cam said, making her frown slightly.

"Who are _you_?" she asked, looking at him first, then at Sam, then at Teal'c—and here she raised an eyebrow when she saw the golden tattoo in his face. She got the same expression from him in return.

"Colonel Cameron Mitchel, United States Air Force," Cam answered, trying to sound as formal as her. She didn't look as surprised as Halsey had been to hear the words 'United States'. "This is Colonel Samantha Carter, Commander of this ship, and our tall friend here is Teal'c."

"Teal'c…" she said in a querying tone.

"Just Teal'c."

"I see," she spoke through her teeth. "'United States'. You guys seriously needed to disguise yourselves like old U.S. Air Force people?" That caused more than a confused look in everyone. "I mean, I know ONI love secrecy and all that, but this?"

"Oh, no," Cam said, suddenly understanding. Halsey had mentioned those initials the day before. "I'm afraid we're not ONI people. We're just plain old Americans from a plain old alternate version of Earth. Sort of."

Palmer seemed taken aback by this, but much to her credit, she took this statement seriously. "If you had a close encounter with Catherine Halsey," she said to Cam, regaining her tone, "you should feel lucky to be alive. Maybe you have something of value she needs?"

"I take it you have met before," Cam said. He noticed her gaze diverting for a split second to her left side. "Which makes me wonder," he continued, "which side you are on. I mean, you are certainly not hers, but by now it has been made clear to me that there is a war going on out here. So, are you one of the good guys, or the bad guys?" she said.

"I take it back," Palmer said. "You are just as smart as you seem."

"Don't get me wrong. I'm sure you believe you are the good guys, just as everyone does in war. But we've already made this mistake yesterday, and now I want to be _damn_ sure I'm backing the right horse."

"You don't seem to have the ability to back anything right now, _Colonel_," she relied in an amused tone. "But if you must know, Catherine Elizabeth Halsey used to be on our side, until she defected to the Covenant."

"That is not what she told us," Daniel said from his corner with a muffled voice, his face still buried in his hands.

"I bet she didn't," Palmer replied. "She is a traitorous liar who committed some of the worst crimes against mankind up to this day."

Cam turned to see Sam with a look that said more than words. "That sounds familiar."

"She must've had a reason," Daniel broke in, standing this time and walking towards the group. "There _has_ to be a reason."

"There is," Palmer admitted. "She's a fugitive and a murderer. She knows we're unto her, and she's desperately trying to do as much damage as she can before we get her." Cam detected the anger in Palmer's voice, and quite honestly, he believed it was genuine, and not just because of her missing arm. _God, we allowed a devil inside our ship._

"What are our chances?" Cam asked slowly, fearing the answer.

"Like I said, if you're still alive, you have something she wants. How many of your crew did she kill?"

"None," Sam said. "Everyone is alive and accounted for."

Palmer huffed. "You _really_ must have something big."

"Oh, stop it already," Daniel said, clearly mad. "Why should we trust _you_?"

"Daniel…" Cam whispered.

"No. Seriously, why should we believe in her more that we first believed in Catherine? Just because they are the ones pursuing her?"

"Daniel," Cam warned him.

"OK, yeah. She took the ship by force. But the reason she didn't kill us is because she _does_ have a conscience. She _chose_ not to kill us! And what about you?" he asked Palmer. "You claim she did this to you, but why are _you_ still alive? Or is it that you have something she needs, too?"

"Jackson!" Cam snapped, realizing he had called one of his comrades by his last name for the first time in years. Daniel noticed, too, as he looked deeply into his eyes. He looked sad, disappointed, regretful, even more than Sam. He walked away and returned to his lone corner behind the space fighter.

"I take it he's not military," Palmer said, breaking the silence.

"No, he's not," Cam replied, not taking his eyes away from him.

"It doesn't matter. I've seen a lot of eggheads like him before. Hard to understand, but—"

"Excuse me?" Cam replied. "He may be stubborn, but that 'egghead', as you call him, is one of the best people I have ever met, and one of my best friends too. And like it or not, we may be prisoners of the same woman, but this is _our_ ship, and if you want us to save your asses, you'll treat our people with more respect. Is that clear, _Commander_?" he concluded, three inches away from her face. She may have been slightly taller than him, but he intended to make it clear he was not intimidated by her.

Palmer did not reply right away. Rather, she waited until her veins were no longer popping in her head before saying, "And how exactly do you plan to rescue us, _Colonel Mitchell_?"

"Help is on its way," Sam broke in, surely realizing this was a breath away from becoming a pissing match; Cam mentally thanked her for the interruption. As much as he hated it, they would still need to work together to survive. "_Daedalus_ was on its way back to Earth when we came here. We were tracking a new menace in Pegasus which apparently originated from this galaxy. I'm sure Homeworld Command will have sent help to do so by now. All we have to do is to activate our emergency transponder, they'll detect it and change course to assist us."

"Isn't that transponder located at the bridge?" Cam asked.

"Not necessarily. After our last experience with Todd, I decided to install a new security measure, in case any of our ships was hijacked ever again, to allow us prisoners to keep a tactical advantage."

"You can open the doors for us?" Palmer asked.

"I could, but I'm not sure that would be wise, not with all those aliens out there, and especially not with the stealth advantage they have."

"Then what's the idea?" Cam queried.

"To activate the transponder from here. When the cavalry arrives, we'll sort the rest out."

"If you actually manage to live that l—" Palmer began, but was cut midsentence when the hangar bay door opened and a half-dozen Elites entered the room, with Halsey walking in behind them. Her words would only help to give Palmer's more weight.

"I'm going to make it simple. I need your help… and I'm not taking a 'no' for an answer."

* * *

**A/N: Aaaaaand we're back to the Main Story Arc!**

**I really hope you liked this chapter. As you can see, the way things are going right now, this fic is _far_ from over. I've already finished writing down the outline for the next six chapters, and I'll start working on Chapter 11 by Sunday tops. Once again, I ask you to be patient with me. I may not be able to update as regularly as I'd like to, but I'll do my best. Truth be told, it is waaaay easier for me to describe this plotline than the one I developed for Chapters 7-9, even when I had clear ideas for both plotlines.  
**

**If you think there are any major holes in the story, feel free to mention them on your Review. I'll PM you if I really screwed up, but take heed: I left a few thing unclear _on purpose_ for the time being, so if you don't get a reply, it's because the answer to your questions will be found on the next chapter(s).**

**Don't forget about the poll! Should I make a Halo/SGU Season 3 crossover? You can express your opinion by going to my profile page and clicking 'Yes' or 'No'.**

**See you all on the next chapter!**

**EDIT: I updated the poll's question to make it clearer. Someone helped me notice the first question was somewhat ambiguous, so here's the question again. Should I make a Halo/SGU Season 3 crossover _after completing this fic_?**


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